text:
Monterey Jazz Festival: Geri Allen dazzles

What a marvelous set just now from pianist Geri Allen, who proved the power of quiet in her festival debut as a leader. She settled down several thousand people in the Arena with her elegance and calming musical presence. With bassist Kenny Davis and crisp young drummer Kassa Overall, she played a set that reminded me, much of it, of Herbie Hancock’s “Speak Like a Child” period from the mid-’60s; music that’s warm, peaceful, resonant. You listen and feel grounded, strengthened by something that’s close to silence.
She played Billy Strayhorn’s “A Flower is a Lovesome Thing.” She played a neat arrangement of “Tears of a Clown” (yes, the Motown tune) that reached for and achieved a white heat, but, again, Herbie-ish. And then she brought out “the fourth member of the group,” as she put it, the young tap dancer Maurice Chestnut. It was his job to demonstrate “an old idea,” Allen said, “the dance on the bandstand.”
With Chestnut, the group played “Philly Joe,” dedicated to the drummer Philly Joe Jones — and Chestnut’s tapping, his “solos,” were much like the solos of a second drummer, a commentary on everything Overall was doing, filling in between the cracks. He also tapped through “Lover Man” — and it was so “classy” (as my grandfather might have said) and it was dazzling, too. And, yes, the final piece was titled “The Dazzler,” composed by Allen on a commission from the festival and inspired by the tapping of Sammy Davis, Jr. It reminded me of Allen’s “Feed the Fire”: ostinatos and crisp rhythms, gliding a bit like Jamal’s “Poinciana.” Chestnut slipped and slided and glided. He looked for a moment like a jogger on a treadmill. Then he looked like a boxer, floating like a bee — like Muhammad Ali, whose face was on his T-shirt. He was a champ. He dazzled, as did Allen and the whole group in this very special hour of the festival.

Richard Scheinin

  • swert
  • Thanks regarding creating this kind of. I really feel as though I’ve met a lot more about the subject than Used to do before. You must continue this kind of, Im sure most people will would agree youve got a present.

  • Some truly excellent information, Glad I detected this.

  • his could be the appropriate weblog for anybody who desires to uncover out about this subject. You realize so much its virtually laborious to argue with you (not that I in fact would need…HaHa). You certainly put a brand new spin on a topic thats been written about for years. Great stuff, just wonderful!

  • I’d must examine with you here. Which is not something I usually do! I take pleasure in reading a put up that will make folks think. Also, thanks for allowing me to comment!

  • 4 trumpet players are in a mini van. The mini van goes off a cliff. What’s the tragedy in this?You can fit 8 trumpet players in a mini van.

  • It’s the best time to make some plans for the longer term and it’s time to be happy. I have read this put up and if I could I wish to counsel you some attention-grabbing things or tips. Maybe you could write subsequent articles relating to this article. I want to read even more things about it!

  • An outstanding share, I just with all this onto a colleague who has been doing a little bit evaluation within this. And he actually purchased me personally breakfast from I found it regarding him.. smile. So i can reword the fact that: Thnx for any deal using! However avoid Thnkx for spending the time period to doubt this, I think strongly concerning this and absolutely love reading more on that topic. If future, as you come to be experience, would you mind updating your site with additional particulars? It is certainly highly great for me. Big browse up because of this weblog set up!

  • I have to audio some sort of affection from your kindness for females and males who want help support return product. Our considerable great care and commitment for you to get all specials sales pitch over has also been totally suitable is definitely at the moment surely made it viable for people like us just like me to arrive at their goals. Your specific priceless helpful tips this means that a lot to individuals established online . for your own pals. Major desires; by numerous people.

  • A sinfully delicious idea, which makes an excellent and convenient dessert, is chocolate covered strawberries. This dessert is easy and quick to make, especially when compared to other desserts like tiramisu or pie. It has simple and basic ingredients, which are chocolate and strawberries.
    set up a swiss financial company

  • That is highly beneficial, many thanks for revealing. I’ll be confident other people will watch goods this identical design

  • Great publish it truly is certainly. We’ve been awaiting for this info.

  • This really is pretty beneficial, many thanks for revealing. I will be self-confident many people will watch items this comparable style

  • Your weblog is extremely helpful. Thanks a lot for supplying plenty of helpful content material. I have bookmark your blog site internet site and can be with no doubt coming back. Once once again, I enjoy all of your deliver the results as well as comeing right here to talk with me.

  • You’ll find some fascinating closing dates on this article but I don’t know if I see all of them middle to heart. There’s some validity nevertheless I’ll take maintain opinion until I look into it further. Good write-up , thanks and we want extra! Added to FeedBurner as effectively


Content-Type: application/http; msgtype=response

WARC-Identified-Payload-Type: text/html

WARC-Type: response

text:
Listening to Jeff Tedford talk about Jahvid Best yesterday at a Bay Area media function (which I attended) and then reading his comments from Pac-10 media day last week, (did not attend), I couldn’t help thinking about Best as a candidate, about his chances and about the difference between Best and the last two Heisman “contenders” to come through Berkeley.

* He’s better equipped than Marshawn Lynch and DeSean Jackson to make a serious run at the trophy.

He has Jackson’s speed/score-from-anywhere ability but will have the ball in his hands more often, which means more chances to make SportsCenter and more chances to rack up big numbers to impress voters in other sections of the country.

He’ll have as many opportunities as Lynch did to make big plays but a better chance to make them because of his speed. He’ll also handle with the media and promotional aspects better than Lynch, who was not comfortable in front of cameras or notebooks. Best is soft spoken, smooth and thoughtful.

* That said, Best has almost zero chance to win the Heisman.

Any other year, he’d have a decent shot because of his playmaking ability. But not in ’09. Not with the Big Three QBs.

It would take mediocre seasons by Tim Tebow AND Colt McCoy AND Sam Bradford for anyone else to have a chance — they have the hype, the reputations, the hardware and the platforms to dominate what could be a Heisman campaign for the ages.

And if Ohio State’s Terrelle Pryor and Notre Dame’s Jimmy Clausen have big years, they’d probably have the edge on Best, too, because of their schools.

Best’s only chance is to post gigantic numbers (1,600 yards rushing, a couple kickoff returns for touchdowns) and generate one SportsCenter play per game. Oh, and Cal needs to be a top-10/15 team all season, too.

* Best has a much better attitude/demeanor than Jackson (and Lynch).

I can’t help but notice the phrase Tedford keeps using when asked about Best and the Heisman. Almost without fail, Tedford says Best is a “team above self” player.

I take that as 1) a complement to Best and 2) a not-so-indirect shot at Jackson, who was self-above-team all the way. (That selfishness helped bring down the Bears in 2007.)

Lynch wasn’t like Jackson, but he’s not the best decision-maker (as his actions in the NFL have shown), and he required a fair amount of management during his years in Berkeley.

Best is far more mature than Lynch and much, much more team oriented than Jackson — he’s just the type of player/personality Cal wants to promote for the Heisman and … carrying this all the way out … represent the school in NYC as a finalist.

It’s just the wrong year.

Jon Wilner

  • Papa John

    I’m thinking that Best’s biggest handicap is that he plays for a Pac-10 school not called USC. If Best were a Trojan or played for ND or in the Big 12 or SEC, he’d be much higher up on folks’ Heisman lists.

    I think that for Best to get serious Heisman hype, Cal would need to run the table. Not likely to happen.

  • milo

    This is definitely filler material. Best is the best back in college football but everyone knows Tebow, Bradford and McCoy are positioned to win the Heisman…with Tebow and Bradford already having won the thing.

    Regardless, did anyone catch Jonathan Okanes’ article about Jimmy Hairball not even knowing who Jahvid Best was at media day and thought he was Kyle Reed? Cmm’n man, he did it twice.

    Jimmy me boy, Jahvid lit you turds up last year and will do the same this year. Either you’re trying to game Cal or you’re a bit of a ninny.

  • Coach Harbaugh

    I think Kyle Reed has a great shot at the Heisman this year.

  • autzenduck

    Cal and Stanford no nothing about winning football just look at there histery. Ducks are going to crush both and USC and go to the rose bowl and Masoli wins heisman.

  • milo

    autzenduck – wtf are you smoking up there? Cal has owned UO the past few years. go talk smack to some beavers.

  • DuckOff

    Please Autzen, don’t make all Ducks fans look stupid. “histery” and Masoli winning the Heisman? Maybe it’s time to put down the keyboard. I’m as big of a fanboy as the rest, but let’s not put the cart miles in front of the horse.

    Go Ducks. Time for some getback on Cal this year.

  • PapaBear

    LMAO at #3 – a new Hotline classic from “Coach Harbaugh”!

  • spincity68

    The Beavers have owned Cal the last few years.

  • GBBS

    Autzenduck nose nuthing about spelling, grammer, or histry. Cal has done very well against the Ducks lately.

    For Best to be even considered for the Heisman, they need to make a LOT of noise and run the table. Even if Cal played for the NCS (it’s August and hope springs eternal), the hype machine is not there for Cal as it exists for other programs. Even if Cal generated a hype machine, the Heisman has been owned by the QB position this decade, with the one notable exception being Reggie Bush from SC.

  • jeff tedford

    why didnt nate longshore get drafted?

  • carp

    “Best’s only chance is to post gigantic numbers (1,600 yards rushing, a couple kickoff returns for touchdowns) and generate one SportsCenter play per game. Oh, and Cal needs to be a top-10/15 team all season, too.”

    I believe he had the 1600 yards last year. I’m thinking the 1800-2000 range is possible with good health. Heck, he could have a 1000 yards against the 3 Washington schools alone.

    Best will have the stats. What Best needs is for the Bears to go 12-0 – unlikely but not impossible. Make no mistake he’s the most exciting player in college football. Hopefully we won’t have too many 7pm games so people on the other coast can actually see him play.

  • Leftcoast

    AhZenCluck don’t no ‘is hstry berry welll and needz a brush-up on othr things like spelllng. I think Stnfrd and Caal fans may no a few things he dsn’t.

  • Chowder

    The Tebradcoy hype machine is vicious, for Best to have a chance I think we need:

    1) at least 11 wins
    2) Have 475+ rushing yards in the first 3 games
    3) Over 2,000 all-purpose yards
    4) At least 20 TDs
    5) One marquee game-saving performance against a bowl-eligible team in November. (Oregon St, Stanford, or Arizona)
    6) Zero games with less than 100 all-purpose yards or 75 yards rushing.

  • Mr. Burns

    I am not so sure about Wilner’s claim that the big 3 need to have mediocre years. I think the bigger key is that there is parity among the 3. To the extent they all have the same good to very good years, the hope is that they are by-and-large indistinguishable (harder with Tebow given his combo of passing and running) from each other, opening the door for Best. He’s got the game to pull off the numbers needed; it’s mostly a matter of staying healthy.

  • UCB-1955

    Wilner shares, “I can’t help but notice the phrase Tedford keeps using when asked about Best and the Heisman. Almost without fail, Tedford says Best is a “team above self” player. I take that as 1) a complement to Best and 2) a not-so-indirect shot at Jackson, who was self-above-team all the way. (That selfishness helped bring down the Bears in 2007.)”

    THANK YOU, for finally acknowledging the negative contributions of MeSean Jackson!

  • StanTheMan

    The only way Best is even in the room when the winner is announced is if the Weenies win the Pac-10 AND he dominates.

  • autzenduck

    Geez I guess I didn’t no this was a spelling contest. We play football at oregon and you have your spelling b. Cal will be 7-5, stan 4-8 and the Ducks 11-1. Are team will be in the rose bowl and you can dreem about how good are uniforms look and wish you were Ducks in the rose bowl and had Phil Nights money. Evryones jelous of the Ducks just admit it!

  • jeff tedford

    nobody is jealous of the ducks. we own u.

  • milo

    Hey University of Niketown-Eugene, Duck Off!

    You too furd, except with a Tree! 🙂

  • The Wisdom Cow

    No BCS bowl, no chance he wins the Heisman. And as for 1,600 yards, I am thinking he needs 1,800 to 2,000.

  • DuckOff

    Seriously, “our” not “are.” And if you’re going to reference the man who makes Oregon sports possible at least spell Knight right. Somebody obviously never attended the University of Oregon.

  • DJ

    I can’t understand if you’re trying to make fun of Cal or yourself with your limited knowledge of English language syntax, usage, and spelling. If you’re from the Bay, you can’t hate the Ducks as over half their team hails from California. They are/were De La Salle’s finishing school. Just some real facts to chew on:

    2008: 26-16 Cal win
    2007: 31-24 Cal win
    2006: 45-24 Cal win

    Sensing a trend?

  • autzenduck

    When was last time Cal won the Pac 10. When was the last time Cal was in the BCS. Wins over other teams dont meen nothing if you cant win a champions ship. Oregon has been champs and will again this year to so you get ready to be in the emrald bowl aganst Duke. Half are team does not come from california because were nation recruiters check out are roster. When evryone sees are uniforms this time they will all be duck fans.

  • sirius

    wow, autzen. just, wow. why are you such a fan considering that you never attended any college? you would have flunked 3rd grade spelling. cal owns oregon. and cal won the pac10 in 2006. Much more recent than oregon who cal has beaten 4 out of last 5. oregon used to recruit in northern california until cal took it back. and now half the national recruits you’re after favor cal.

  • BaetaBear

    Hey Bear haiters… Javid in your face, last year was hurt half the season and missed the asu game. Meaning, num nuts, he would have reached at least 1700 yrds, and been over 2000 all purpose yards as a sophmore. Are you kidding me with maybe he’s got a shot. Oh he’s got a shot… Try watching his first game on national TV, (espn2) against Maryland and telling me he doesnt have a shot. By the end of the game all reporters and lame bloggers will have changed thier “bandwaggon” minds and will demand a vote for Javid. You’ll also all run out and try and buy a ticket to the greatest show on earth when usc visits Berkeley. Wait its already sold out. So settle for watching the Bears and Best pluck your ducks again at home and watch what is now the dominate pac 10 team. Bears 09 have mad talent. Speed kills.

  • Miek Billoti

    Please Autzen – stop typing, step away from the keyboard and go back to training for whatever kind of “special” athletics you do. You’re making anyone from the great state of oregon look like an illiterate hillbilly roadkill eating fool!

  • Tweedledamn

    Autzenduck, we all admire your tenacity (look it up). Someday, in six or seven years, if you study hard, you’ll be able to watch your Ducks from the student section in Autzen. You’ll have a great time. It’ll be the best way you’ll ever see a football game. But, in all seriousness, you’ll need to study really hard. Really. Start now. You’ll be glad you did.

  • Broncoboss

    Kellen Moore should edge out Tebow for the Heisman this year…McCoy runner-up and Bradford a close 3rd..J. Best probably will fall out of any Heisman talk by the 3rd week-maybe sooner…

  • Leftcoast

    Win a champions ship?

    That sounds pretty good Autzen! I’d love to win Florida’s yacht or perhaps the one used by the Patriots several years back! Then I’d know my team’s season was complete.

    Keep ’em coming – Who said education couldn’t be fun!

    (Even money Autzen is a Oregon fan parody someone has put up for laughs. No matter – Count me as highly entertained.)

  • jeff tedford

    Stan the fan u are simply delusional. u must be having a very difficult time accepting just how terrible your favorite team is (stanfurd). its unfortunate that stanfurd’s program had to go completely into the toilet. but its not our fault. don’t blame the BEARS for your displeasure. the only weenie in berkeley is at top dog. the rest of them are walking around stanfurd’s campus.

  • jpark

    Hopefully Duck fans and players generally have better spelling and grammar than autzenduck…

  • Oski88

    This is the kind of year when Best can sneak in.

    If Best gets 500 yards for the first three games, and can get to 2000, he is in. And that is doable if he is healthy. Let’s face it – this is probably the weakest Cal schedule in a few years, and he should be able to get some good yardage.

    If the QBs all steal votes from each other, with the voters giving the running back the second place vote, it could happen that he gets in without even getting the most number 1s. Last year was similar – lots of people with a lot of people having Tebow fatigue. Best is a highlight reel. It is going to get him some votes and he will definitely be in NY if he is healthy. Plus, he is likeable.

  • jpf

    For once I think Wilner is right. Here are my thoughts on the stats Best would need to post (assuming the QBs put up numbers comparable to the last few years):

    1) 1600+ yds rushing to be considered, 1800+ to be invited, 2000+ to win
    2) 15 TDs to be considered, 20 TDs to be invited, 25-30 to win
    3) Runner-up to USC to be considered, Pac-10 champion to be invited, National Championship game to win
    4) Plus SportsCenter highlights weekly (ESPECIALLY for the early games so the biased ones on the “wrong” coast can see him on game day–not Sunday night).

    I think he would have to have an ABSURD year to win. And I’m talking like 250+ yards against USC, 3 TDs, and crazy ridiculous moves that make even his astounding plays last year look slow. The bias for QBs to win the Heisman is so heavy, plus the lack of “tradition” (nevermind 40 years of dominance in the first half of the century) makes it nearly impossible for Best to be considered unless his numbers are SO ridiculously amazing that it is undeniable. BUT that would also have to mean the Pac-10 as a conference would need to DOMINATE its OOC opponents (see UW beating LSU, UCLA Tennessee, Oregon beating Utah, etc), because then the East Coasties will just say “oh well he got those numbers in a weak conference.”

    So yeah unfortunately Wilner is right unless the moons align and the unthinkable happens–which could…. 😉

  • Verdnaw

    One point that I’ve seen brought up a few times by Heisman articles/blogs is that although Bradford and Tebow are almost guaranteed (barring injury) to be invited back to NY, it is unlikely they will repeat. The argument was that voters would be too hesitant for an Archie Griffin type scenario.

    The only situation where this wouldn’t be the case is if either QB had a season that was far above their previous work in terms of stats and highlight-reel games–and again considering what that would mean (go back and look at what they did the past 2 seasons) it just isn’t very likely to happen.

    That would leave Colt McCoy as the true #1 contender, basically his trophy to lose. He’s been an ‘also ran’ for the past 2 seasons and this could finally be his year. That said, like a back-up QB everyone else is one play away from having their shot.

    Jahvid is unlikely to win the award–there are just so many variables out there, most going against him (Cal’s tradition being the prime culprit)–but a trip to NYC is very much on the table, obviously assuming he performs as well as most expect.

    To have any shot at winning, Bradford and Tebow would have to be just great (not spectacular as they have in the past). Then McCoy would have to screw something up or get hurt. Then Jahvid would have to do what he has done in the past, plus remain healthy for all games (giving him the stat bump to about 1700 yds) , plus produce in the USC game. To be fair, Bush had a couple of so-so games in his Heisman winning season, but he had the obvious advantage of playing for USC on one of the more prolific offenses in CFB history–and he was ‘the man’ on said offense.

    All this leads me to guess it will end up something like this (not accounting for injuries):

    3-8 in no particular order, Bradford, Best, Pryor, Johnson (SC finally sticks with 1 back to get over the 1000 yd. mark), Dwyer, and Devine (who is certain to have more highlight runs than anyone except perhaps Best).

  • arch

    Best may have an outside shot, but he HAS to produce in marquee games (see: at Oregon, vs USC). He can pick up all the 220 yard rushing game totals against the weak sisters of the Pac-10, but if Best lays an egg and is a non-factor (see: His, what, 20 yards against the Trojans in 08?) when it truly counts, the Heisman is just a pipe dream.

    Oh. Not to pile it on against Autzen (because, come on, the guy is clearly Highlights for Kids), but Cal WOULD have gotten to a BCS game a few games ago if Mack Brown didn’t lobby his ass off to get Cal blacklisted in several deciding polls.

    Of course, getting waxed by a Texas Tech team makes it seem like the Pollgate shenanigans were justified, but it was still bullshit and that Cal squad should’ve been in a BCS bowl game.

  • gary

    Best will also need to have a good (at least 100 yards, and 1 TD) game against USC. He just couldn’t get it going against them last year. This will be Cal’s most watched game of the season and the one everyone will remember most.

warcinfo:
robots: classic
hostname: ip-10-179-56-52.ec2.internal
software: Nutch 1.6 (CC)
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2018-05
operator: Common Crawl Admin
description: Wide crawl of the web for January 2018
publisher: Common Crawl
format: WARC File Format 1.0
conformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf


text:
Rays draft St. Francis’ Goeddel (UPDATED w/ Dunston, Prigatano, Blandino)

Huge day for one of the Bay Area’s best athletes, St. Francis’ Tyler Goeddel, who was drafted by the Tampa Bay Rays. Goeddel was selected 41st overall and was the only CCS player to go on Day 1. Vytas Mazeika of the Palo Alto Daily News caught up with Goeddel, who said he knew he had been drafted before seeing his name pop up on MLB Network.

“My dad got a call about 30 seconds before,” Goeddel said, “And he yelled, so I knew something good was happening. I definitely knew they had some interest in me, but I didn’t know exactly where they would take me or if they would. I was trying not to get too excited about it. But when it actually happened, it was awesome.”

Goeddel is a 6-foot-4, 170-pound infielder, but draft experts believe he will eventually be moved to the outfield as he continues to grow. He hit .361 with 27 runs, seven doubles, two
triples and two homers this season.

St. Francis coach Mike Oakland described him as a “plus runner” with a “plus arm,” and ESPN.com’s Jason Churchill wrote that “there’s some upside at the plate, including the potential for above-average power.”

Prior to today, Goeddel was listed as the 89th best player in the draft by Baseball America, and was No. 32 on Keith Law’s Top 100.

The question now: will he sign?

Goeddel is committed to UCLA, where his brother Erik spent three years before being drafted by the Mets last year.

“It’s definitely going to be a fun and long process,” said Goeddel, who will spend the summer with the Wenatchee AppleSox in Washington. “As of right now I’m still planning on going to UCLA. We’ll see what happens with the Rays.”

Despite some pre-draft rumors about his signing demands, Goeddel said he has no figure in mind. Considering the team that drafted him, you’ve got to think the odds are very good that Goeddel follows through with his plan and plays at UCLA.

The Rays aren’t exactly known for their deep pockets. Plus, they had 10 picks today –- including four in front of Goeddel — so there will be no desperation to get this pick signed and off to the minors.

UPDATE: The Cubs drafted Valley Christian’s Shawon Dunston Jr. in the 11th round, No. 339 overall. His famous father of the same name was taken first overall by the Cubs in 1982.

UPDATE II: Toronto drafted St. Francis first baseman Richard Prigatano in the 16th round, No. 499 overall. Here’s what SI.com’s Dave Perkin wrote about Prigatano this morning as he previewed the best players still available after Day 1:

Scouts descended, en masse, to St. Francis High this spring to observe Tyler Goeddel, a top third base prospect. Prigatano was thus discovered. Strong, athletic and mobile at 6’3″ and 200 pounds, Prigatano, a righthanded hitter, dazzled scouts with his picturesque power swing. Said one scout, “I’d pay him $400,000 based on his batting practice.”

UPDATE III: Make that three Lancers who got drafted. Alex Blandino was taken 1,156th (38th round) by the A’s. St. Francis had more draftees than the rest of Santa Clara County combined…

Alex Pavlovic

  • Jacob Wang

    KNBR’s Eric James Byrnes also hails from St. Francis & UCLA

    With all those draftable studs and division one players, it is embarrassing that St. Francis plays so poorly at the end of each season. What is going on over there? Seems like chaos.

  • Teee

    You missed Alex Todd from Leland (Sonoma State) drafted in
    the 27th roung by Astros.

  • Bradford Fan

    The reasons that SF cant play team ball and win WCAL or CCS is due to baseball karma.

    Oakland opens his SF field up to 6th-7th-8th grade teams for so called exposure and has some of his former and current assistants actually ask kids “where are you going in a few years”…..if these 13-14 or 15 yr old boys say: “I’m going to such and such a high school” and if the letters dont start with the inititial SF then these immoral coaches try to get these younger kids to change their mind and go to SF.

    Thus the UTTER chaos that you mention above. Oakland-Volta and the Principals ALL know that they are NOT following CIF.CCS.WCAL protocol but it matters NOT to them.

    Maybe NOW that this heavily recruited class lost to the lowest possible seed – maybe they will sanction each other or self correct the apparent and Obvious problem.

    Shame on ST Francis and some of their high-falutin fathers for letting this happen….

    Embarrassing. They guy should quit. SF would have studs coming to their school regardless of the exposure attempts. Embarrassing for all private schools. Confirms what the general public always has felt. This guy is bad for high school baseball.

  • Three and out

    So let me get this right. Dunston is good enough to get drafted 339th overall but isn’t good enough to make any of the all County teams. Wow the county must be loaded with great players or the guy selecting the team has no clue.

    He was not All WCAL either. I guess you can add all those coaches to the clueless group then too. Maybe the scouts are looking for skills that project down the road but may not be present here. If the Merc made a guy all county that was not all league, they would catch hell for that too. Can’t win. Based on the comments above, he would not have seen the field at St. Francis. Then they would have had 4 drafted players. That out of control circus over there still should be investigated.

  • Coach

    Bunch of whiny babies….the same year that class came into SF, Mitty did their best to recruit away at least 3 members of the team…Private school means better education, and knowing the parents of a couple of the boys, they got no breaks, and paid dearly to send their kids to school there. Now, get a friggin life…

  • Shaka10

    I know for a fact that St. Francis recruits. Even their athletic director has called kids, kids who were already registered at another WCAL school, asking them to come to St. Francis. They are a joke!!!

  • Based

    Every school recruits in some way.

  • joeb

    You seem to have no problem accusing a school and AD of violating the rules – cheating. How about backing it up with some facts! Who did the AD call and when? Why were they not reported for violating the undue influence rule in CIF? I call BS on your statement. PROVE me wrong (no my friend or cousin said so).

    FYI, had to edit. Remember, no cussing on board – AP

  • BAY

    When private schools like the entire WCAL recruit, it makes it so much more amazing when public schools like Palo Alto end up winning all the championships!

  • Go Bells

    @bay, can only speak for Bellarmine – we don’t recruit, but we are attractive to kids, and parents, that value a top notch education, a social environment that emphasises brotherhood and community service, and athletic programs that are amongst the best, year-in and year-out (to say nothing of our nationally ranked speach and debate, and robotics clubs – they are seldom mentioned in these blogs). Paly had a great class, great athletes. They have great programs, and great coaches. The privates don’t have the market cornered. We look forward to competing every year, against the best.

  • just sayin

    +1 – Go Bells

  • Coach

    And they lost to the PAL Champion Carlmont.

  • former lancer

    There is no question St. Francis recruits. They are bringing in the best players out of Campbell and Los Gatos when for private schools Mitty and Bellarmine are in these kids back yard. Go figure. Their class of 2014 have 10 kids over 6 feet and 3 kids that throw close to 90 already. You know who I am talking about, Deason, Gavin & Billinger.

  • Sh*ttyMitty

    Please they all recruit… ALL OF THEM!!! Even Bellarmine, but Hutton is the biggest proponent of it. He is a sneaky jackass… and please Joeb, don’t be an idiot. No one is going to give names, but you obviously know nothing about baseball in the WCAL if you think they don’t recruit. Hutton has gone as far as having former alums or their parents taking baseball prospects and their families to fancy dinners…(THATS A FACT!!! FIRST HAND EXPERIENCE!!!) HUTTON IS A DIRTBAG!!! I also heard stories of twin brothers (black) leaving Mitty because of Hutton and his seamingly racist ways. No black players on the team in over a decade…wow!!!


text:
Are the Warriors a better playoff team without David Lee? You see it, you know it, and here’s why it’s true

* Straight from today’s Merc website (MY VERSION)/

It’s quantifiable, it’s palpable and it’s only deniable if you view all things through the prism of David Lee’s All-Star reputation.

It’s a real thing, though: The Warriors are a more dangerous playoff team without Lee than they ever were when he was healthy.

OK, let me also point out that Lee was absolutely necessary during the regular season when Andrew Bogut was out or limited and the team’s younger players were playing young.

The Warriors don’t win 47 games without him, his work ethic, his ability to pile up double-digit rebounds and points (the much-publicized “double-double”) and his true vocal leadership.

But at this advanced stage of Warriors activity—tied 1-1 with the Spurs in the Western Conference semifinals—there just isn’t much doubt that Lee’s torn hip-flexor in Game 1 of the first round hasn’t hurt them.

It freed the Warriors to be more of who they truly should be, actually.

They’re faster, more flexible, more aggressive, tougher, more balanced, better on defense and now they’re built around a powerful three-piece axis:

Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Andrew Bogut, a straight line of influence, and just ask the San Antonio Spurs how imposing that is.

Before I get into the specific reasons, a few statistics on this issue:

* The Warriors are 5-2 in these playoffs when Lee plays less than 2 minutes in the playoffs, and 0-1 when he plays more than 2 minutes. (He had the short cameo in Game 6 against Denver.)

Small-sample size, yes, but the entire playoffs are small-sample sizes and that’s how you decide champions.

* Lee is credited for being their rebounding force and offensive maestro, yet mostly without him the Warriors are have the second-best field-goal percentage (behind Miami) and third-best rebound—percentage in this

All this raises issues, of course, about the logic of keeping Lee into the future, but we’ll all deal with that once this playoff run is over.

As it stands, Lee is co-owner Joe Lacob’s hand-picked favorite, one of coach Mark Jackson’s untouchables, owed $44.4 million over the next three seasons, and beloved by much of the Warriors’ fan base.

He’ll be tough to trade, if ever the Warriors could bring themselves to try.

But here are five reasons the Warriors matched up better against Denver and are currently bedeviling the Spurs without their sole All-Star:

1. Double-doubles just aren’t as valuable as so many Warriors fans—and Warriors officials—think they are.

Lee led the league with 56 of them this season. And that meant… what?

Bogut has only two double-doubles in eight playoff games and do you think he hasn’t been valuable enough?

Value is about two-way team efficiency, not individual stat categories, and without Lee, the Warriors are operating at their highest level, on both offense and defense, possibly since the mid-1970s.

2. The Warriors’ defense is more athletic without Lee, who is a poor individual defender and a slow help defender.

Harrison Barnes and Draymond Green were far better suited to chase Denver’s quick forwards and those two plus Carl Landry match-up well with San Antonio’s assortment.

The new forward-rotation covers more ground, switches better and attacks opponent penetration much more nimbly.

3. Bogut is better and plays more freely without Lee. Now he owns the lane, period.

Bogut can deal with Tim Duncan one-on-one and the offense runs more smoothly when Bogut isn’t shunted over to the weak side to put Lee on the ball side.

4. The extra shots in Lee’s absence have gone to Thompson and Curry, and there is nothing wrong with that.

Think of Allen Iverson, Monta Ellis, Amare Stoudemire, Rudy Gay… high-volume shooters get stats that their teammates often can replicate at a more efficient rate with better ball movement.

Now, the Warriors are thoroughly a three-point shooting team–they’re very good at it; they can blow teams away with it; and they don’t need Lee for it.

5. Lee’s greatest value is as a pick-and-roll partner with Curry, but Curry has elevated has game so high that he now can play that game with anybody the Warriors choose.

Really, the Warriors have moved beyond a dependence on Lee, a good thing.

Before the playoffs started, they were 3-18 over the last three seasons when Lee wasn’t in the lineup.

But there were a lot of reasons for that, mainly that the Warriors weren’t very good for a very long time.
They’re better now, and they’re proving that they went about as far as they could go with Lee as a centerpiece.
He’s not a centerpiece now, and they haven’t come close to hitting their playoff ceiling yet.

Tim Kawakami

  • Lee is a class act with all star offensive numbers but….. He cannot guard a single player. What is worse is he makes no effort to mix it up.If he put the energy on defense that he puts on offense we would be set. Great guy who can be on my team but in a tight ballgame in the fourth quarter draymond green or barnes is on the floor and lee can hang out on the bench

  • miawarrior

    I think DLee should be used more extensively to protect the leads after the young guns have shot the lights out. Maybe he’s better as a sixth man.

  • jhns

    The great thing about basketball, and what the Ws have definitely proven, is that it is a team game. The Ws are succeeding by playing as a team. Utilizing each members strengths and helping out with their weaknesses. There is no reason to think that this would not extend to DLee as well. Having a consistent scorer in the post (to go along with Landry) and another solid rebounder would only make this a better team. The only problem it would create would be finding minutes for everyone. But with MJax improving on his coaching that really only means more rest for all the players, allowing them to maximize their time on the court.

    Regardless of how these playoffs end up I am already looking forward to next season. Hopefully everyone is healthy and back. This team will be incredibly deep next year. But if they continue to keep the team orientation – look out.

  • Bravo

    The Dubs would beat Denver with or without Lee. And they are beating San Antonio without him, but would probably be beating them with lee. The issue -as PhilB raises – is Memphis. Memphis will be tough on the Dubs without Lee. Festus will need to grow up even faster.

  • PhilB

    Here’s another excellent Grantland article detailing adjustments Lee can make to help Curry, such as actually making the pick on a pick and roll:

    Bottom line: more touches more freedom for Steph Curry. This is HIS team.

  • Jake

    Well, crazy sells newspapers. Great to see the youngs step up. 3 unknowns:
    1) How much better would the team be w. Lee? Maybe the Dubs would have swept both the Nuggets and the Spurs by now.
    2) Lee’s injury is recent. The NBA is a league of adjustments – people figure things out over time and in the off-season.
    3) True championship teams have the ability to get points ‘in the paint’ when they need to. This was true even of Michael Jordan’s Bulls. As good as Klay and Steph are, a team still needs to be able to score in the paint.

  • PhilB

    BTW, guys are commenting on a possible matchup between the Warriors-Heat. How delicious would that be?

  • Splash Brothers

    The freedom that Lee’s absence gives the team is very simple. For beginners, who do you take the 10-15 shots away from to give to him for his 15 ft jumpers and low post hook shots? Klay? Curry?

    As for Bogut, he is working harder and better because he’s healthier, yes, but also Lee’s absence means that their is a lack of traffic and congestion in the lane that Lee brings with his style of play. When Lee is in, Lee’s comfort zones on defense for rebounding position and on offense often clog up what Bogut could do in and around the painted area on offense and defense and therefore makes it difficult for Bogut to be as effective as he has been on both ends.

    In contrast, Lee needs to get the ball at certain spots on the floor yet the time it takes for him to get set up usually slows everything down offensively allowing the opposing defense to make their necessary switches. But the big difference now is that without Lee, the ball is moving quicker and being driven into the paint at such an efficient level that there’s no time for the Spurs to make the changes and keeps them on their heels. No way in hell that happens with Lee in there.

    This doesn’t mean I or anyone else is saying that Lee is garbage and he is a scrub, but a closer look at how he gets his points and on the flip side, how he gives up points on defense, tell a more complete explanation as to why the team has a much more free flowing and effective look to it now since he’s been out.

  • CNote

    @PhilB – I was blown away by that Lee doesn’t set good picks part of Lowe’s article (which I was about to post myself after reading and was happy to see that it was already here). “I could have taken 100 snapshots of Lee whiffing on picks”, Lowe writes. Wow.

    Why is Steph making more shots since Lee went down? It’s because he’s getting cleaner looks from Bogut/Ezeli picks. Get the kid more looks! He’s transcendent!

    @miawarrior – I don’t see how we can bring our All Star off the bench after his amazing box score season of 56 double-doubles. Makes sense but won’t happen. He must be traded or fire up and use his physical gifts to play defense and set some beast-mode picks like his teammates do.

  • First off, anyone saying that Lee and Bogut can’t play together doesn’t remember that people were saying Curry and Thompson couldn’t play together. Also, people complaining about Lee’s defense – does Stef Curry play good defense? The fact of the matter is that Jarret Jack and DLee, both whipping boys for some, contributed GREATLY to the Warriors even getting to the playoffs. Really, the only people whose opinion matters are the Warriors themselves. What do you think they’d say? My guess would be to keep them both.

  • Dan

    @Ben Brung
    “How do you get cap relief with a trade? Would you really trade Lee for expirings when we already have 2 sizable ones? That sounds like a Cohan move to me.”

    Not sure if serious. Lee and Humphries make basically the exact same money next year, but KH’s contract comes off the books in ’14 while Lee’s comes off in ’16. That’s how you get cap relief in a trade.

    I know that KH doesn’t do what Lee does, but it’s going to be really tough to get a cheap/productive-ish player that would rid us from Lee’s awful contract. If we get that money off the books, that gives us more space to resign our young guys and possibly pick up a quality free agent in the summer of 2014, when theoretically, our core guys will be peaking and we will be just a couple years a way from moving into a beautiful new building in SF.

  • rps50

    TK – As usual, you arguments are wack. The bottom line is the Ws got a favorable matchups in the playoffs. Both the Nuggets & the Spurs don’t have size. Let’s see how well playing small will be when we play a team like MEM.

  • Grey Warden

    #96 Pedro,

    I don’t read his articles unless it’s about something controversial. Sometimes somebody has to criticize his work, otherwise TK would think he gets a free pass at anything and everything.

  • PhilB

    @ CNote

    Lee has been slipping the pick early to get a head start to the basket; expecting the roll pass from Curry. More offensive design than selfishness or laziness on Lee’s part. In the new system, he needs to lay wood on the guard to give Steph that split second of separation. Once the shot goes up, then Lee can crash hard to the glass.

    Good stuff from Zach Lowe. Dude can write.

  • The End of DLee

    For those who continue to defend DLee, quit bringing up what he brings to the table offensively. I assume I’m speaking for most when I say that our issues with him are ALL defense related.

    And for those that love to bring up the issue with Steph’s D… Does he play good D? Hell no. So everyone’s OK with two of our core players being defensively inept? Hell no. So the consensus would be that we’d keep Curry over DLee? Hell yes.

    solution is to find a replacement for DLee…

  • Ben Brung

    Definitely serious but, admittedly, poorly worded. Rather than the first sentence being a question, I should have said that a trade only clears cap space if it’s made for expiring contracts. It’s pretty early to predict whether RJ & Biedrins will clear enough cap space to sign all the young players we will want to keep. Seems we’re probably at least one more quality player away from a championship so I have questions about whether dumping Lee simply to sign other current Warriors would be enough.

    I still see potential for Lee to be used effectively so I’m not really on-board with unknown, theoretical free agent signing in 2014. If there is a reasonable amount of confidence that we can sign Lebron (I predict there won’t be) then it’s a no-brainer. If we’re taking a flyer on signing Nowitski with a greater likelihood that we end up signing Bargnani, you can count me out. Somewhere in the middle, let’s talk.

    Cap space is only valuable to me if using it offers a clear path to improving the team. I don’t see how that path could realistically be clearly laid-out at this point in the post season. Maybe it will be this off-season or, more realistically, at the Feb. trade deadline. Until then, I don’t understand why anyone would be clamoring for Lee’s release? It seems there is very little downside to seeing how the coaching staff utilizes Lee next season.

  • sffranciscan

    David Lee isn’t even the point now.

    Jarrett Jack has killed this team in both series and he will ruin any chance of beating the Spurs. Tonight was absolutely ridiculous: appalling defense, worse offense.

    He cost this team at least–at least–16 points.

    Cut him.

  • Matt F

    I understand what you’re saying and I agree with most of it, but not the conclusion. Think about the teams the warriors played. Two teams without 2 strong post players. Could the warriors handle the bulls, grizzles, or pacers? Probably not because they lack the post presents without david lee. they have played fantastic without him, but against teams that play 1 big post and 1 little post (like Miami). While this is a common trend in the nba, having 2 bigs is more effective with two amazing shooters and scorers like thompson and curry.


text:
Jurgen Klinsmann and the Harbaugh-ifcation of American soccer: The US team is bigger because their coach is a giant

* Straight from today’s Merc website (MY VERSION)/

No matter what happens Tuesday against Belgium, the United States national team, for once, does not look like a leery lightweight in this World Cup.

That’s something. That’s actually an enormous thing on the global football level, I’m pretty sure.

And it’s not because the U.S. have a Messi or Neymar or Ronaldo or (thank goodness) Suarez on this team, of course, because this country has never produced that kind of cosmic soccer superstar.

But the U.S. have a Klinsmann, and that makes almost all the difference.

Jurgen Klinsmann is German, he doesn’t score goals or save them, he has a cagey, mysterious stubbornness, and the most eye-catching thing he did was to send away Landon Donovan, America’s most accomplished and famous player.

No doubt, there were a lot of ways this all could’ve blown up on the U.S. coach.

And yet: The team journeyed through the Brazilian topography and the “Group of Death” and into this quarterfinal Round of 16 game.

So, as we all scramble about to quantify what this tournament and this game may or may not do for soccer in America, I don’t think we can underestimate the Klinsmann Effect.

He clearly belongs on the big stage, and because he’s the U.S.’s coach, the U.S. seems to belong there, too, in a way they very probably didn’t when they were led by Bob Bradley, Bruce Arena or Steve Sampson.

I’ve always thought that, to make permanent inroads to the heart of this sports nation, American soccer needed a panoramic, ultra-dynamic personality.

Americans love and can fully embrace someone who acts like winner, talks like a winner… and who wins.

It wasn’t going to be Donovan, not this time. Klinsmann made it… about Klinsmann, and it is working. He’s the American centerpiece, he’s the front man, he’s the man of every U.S. match and American sports fans can’t help but buy into this.

Even if he speaks with a German accent.

Yes, Klinsmann is U.S. soccer’s first truly Machiavellian, swaggering, winking Cool Hand.

“We cannot win this World Cup because we are not at that level yet,” Klinsmann told the New York Times back in December, in a story that was published right before the Cup started.

Perfect! You thought he was being unnecessarily dour? Then you missed the motivational point and he wanted you to see that you missed the point.

Really, Klinsmann is doing what Jim Harbaugh did and is doing for the 49ers, what Phil Jackson has done on every stop, what the smartest, most confident and most charismatic guys do on the largest stages.

Klinsmann has happily and heartily made himself the focus, put the pressure on his own shoulders, and brought his players in behind him.

He hasn’t done it with bombast, but with a subtler set of moves and gestures that all communicate a single message:

Don’t worry, I’ve got this figured out.

It might not all coalesce on Tuesday. The U.S. might lose. They’re probably not as talented as Belgium.

But Klinsmann is signed through the next World Cup cycle, and that further punctuates his hold over this team.

Not all—or many—American sports fans can fully grasp the strategic intricacies of the 4-4-2 vs. the 4-2-3-1 formation.

But we can all see the tough and talented German-Americans–Jermaine Jones, Fabian Johnson, Timmy Chandler, Julian Green, and John Brooks—that
Klinsmann has collected for this team.

Some, like Jones and Johnson, are in major roles now; some, like the 19-year-old Green, are being nurtured for 2018.
Fully eight of the 23 players that Klinsmann picked for this team are 25 or younger, and that all points to the future.
There will be a broad connection from this Cup run to the next run, because Klinsmann has created one.

But he’s still playing Machiavelli in this one, of course.

On Monday in Brazil, Klinsmann questioned the selection of Algerian Djamel Haimoudi as the referee in Tuesday’s game, noting that Algeria was in same group as Belgium and that Haimoudi speaks French, as do the Belgians.
Out of nowhere. Strange. Almost certainly unnecessary. So… What was Klinsmann point?

The point was utterly Harbaugh-ian: You have to try to figure out what Klinsmann means, because you always know it means something; and that effort alone already gives him an edge.

Oh, I know that Klinsmann is friendly with Seattle’s Pete Carroll going back to Carroll’s days at USC; yes, Klinsmann is based in Southern California.

But Klinsmann is known to have studied top coaches from all sports; he’s too savvy not to soak up everything.

And he unquestionably has some Harbaugh in him–or maybe Harbaugh has some Klinsmann in him, either way:

The chip on the shoulder, the ability to unify their players, the compulsion to put themselves into the middle of everything and the confidence that they will succeed when it’s over…

The biggest coaches make their teams bigger, and Klinsmann is the biggest thing American soccer has ever had, whether this Cup run lasts another day or another few monumental weeks.

Tim Kawakami

  • qtlaw88

    Nice reminder of how short-sighted his detractors were before WC 14 started;
    does Klinnsman have an anecdote for the penalty box dive that Robben took against Mexico?

    Any guess as to whether he’d go Harbaugh-like then?

  • ZFoto

    Klinsmann was not given the luxury of having one of the most talented rosters in the league as was Harbaugh. Klinsmann’s success is genuine. Harbaugh’s weaknesses will be exposed when the talent is gone. There’s not a head coach in the NFL that couldn’t win with the Niners’ roster. The same can not be said for Team USA.

  • cynic

    You mean like Mike Singletary?

  • biggiep

    Harbaugh took largely the same roster that Singletary went 6-10 with and promptly went 13-3 and to the NFC championship with little off-season preparation to implement his system due to the lockout. If that isn’t epic coaching, what is it? Maybe you should stfu and learn your Niners history before commenting.

  • Jack W

    The following is a quote I found that seems to say a lot about Jurgen’s philosophy
    “As a baker can’t live on yesterday’s bread”
    “A soccer player can’t live on their last game.”
    “It’s all about today’s game”

    . . . Jurgen Klinsmann

  • cbj

    ZFoto, you greatly overestimate your intellect.


text:
Tune Up (Warriors 105, Pistons 97)

The Warriors didn’t win any style points Wednesday night against Detroit, but they won the game.  As the team attempts to build a buffer between it and the edge of the playoffs, everything is secondary to putting another check in the win column.  That said, the game was an often frustrating reminder that the Warriors still play down to their opponents.  Games that should be over early — like this one — have a way of staying close throughout.  The Warriors struggle to maintain leads because they don’t get stops and still often settle for lower percentage shots.  But when they transcend those bad habits, impressive things happen — like Wednesday night’s third quarter.

Twenty seconds into the third quarter, the Pistons took a two-point lead.  It would be their last.  As if suddenly confronted with the reality that this was a game they could actually lose, the Warriors snapped to attention.  Harrison Barnes started slashing.  Stephen Curry kept shooting.  David Lee and Andrew Bogut moved the ball beautifully.  After sputtering for much of 2013, the Warriors’ offense and defense hummed like a well-oiled machine — surging in 13-4 and 11-2 runs.  The team shot .67 percent for the quarter and forced 5 Detroit turnovers.  There were glimpses of this type of efficient, aggressive and smart play against the Knicks too.  These flashes will need to become the norm if the team hopes to make the playoffs anything beyond a season-ticket renewal ploy.

The unlikely catalyst of the third quarter run was Harrison Barnes.  Barnes had the good fortune of being drafted by a team with three excellent scorers.  While the rookie has the potential to be a create-for-himself scorer, as he showed against Toronto, he doesn’t need to be that type of player right now given his teammates.  Barnes has the luxury of being a weak-side guy, lurking in the shadows, watching the spacing of the court and waiting for his moment to slash through an open lane.  He made the most of those opportunities against the Pistons.

Given Curry’s blistering first half, the Pistons opened the third quarter with a stretched defense that sagged towards the Warriors’ point guard whenever he had the ball.  As Curry and Lee packed the strong side, Barnes waited for lanes to open to the basket and then made himself available.  The Warriors’ terrific ball movement zipped the ball from strong to weak side, and before the Pistons could so much as turn around, Barnes was getting an easy bucket.  These types of points should be available almost every night for Barnes.  If he can start consistently taking advantage of the opportunities Curry, Thompson and Lee create for him, the Warriors will have a much easier time getting high-percentage looks in the half-court.

While Barnes’ performance stood out as a potential step to the next level of his potential, Curry and Lee put up the type of nights we’ve come to take for granted.  Curry finished a super-efficient 11-17.  Lee owned the boards and got repeated high-percentage looks taking slower Pistons’ big men off the dribble.  The two Warriors worked together on some textbook perfect pick-and-rolls.  This type of crisp execution is exactly what the Warriors want to see at this point in the season.  They’re not getting as much of it as they’d like — even in this win — but the knowledge that they haven’t lost the plot entirely is encouraging.

After Barnes’ emergence, the other encouraging sign of the night was how thoroughly Andrew Bogut frustrated Greg Monroe.  The Pistons’ center was a brutal 4-16, often missing layups that were contested or blocked by Bogut.  While Barnes’ weak-side attacks in a sense depend on being a marginal figure in the offense, Bogut’s defensive presence requires him to be the team’s solid core.  When a driving guard beats his man, Bogut picks him up.  When Lee over-rotates to help a teammate who doesn’t need any assistance, it’s Bogut who fills the space in the middle and tries to protect the rim.  He was a force against the Pistons, leaving them to shoot (and miss) from the perimeter rather than challenge him.  Bogut looked completely gassed by the end of the game (32 minutes), but it was encouraging to see him taking hits, falling to the ground and then springing back up.  The Warriors’ center isn’t physically back to normal yet, but mentally it must help for him to take a few tumbles and live to fight another day.

The final pieces in the Warriors’ victory are bench ones.  Jarrett Jack and Festus Ezeli individually had nice runs despite some catastrophic performances by their bench teammates. Jack made an impact with some key shots and because his presence allowed Curry to be a pure shooter; Ezeli was a net positive because he brings a relentless energy in a body that can do serious damage.  Both players filled their rolls against Detroit.  Unfortunately, the rest of the bench was missing in action.  Green was reckless, then hobbled.  Jefferson was invisible.  Landry made a few nice plays individually, but was burned at the other end and never fully engaged in the free-flowing offense of the starters.  I found myself during the particularly brutal second quarter thinking back fondly to the Brandon Rush-led bench of last year that regularly outplayed the starters.  Those days are long gone.  The Warriors need their bench to elevate its game over the following weeks to prepare for opponents far more daunting than the Pistons.

Ultimately, I see two types of momentum that can be generated by late season games.  There are wins that are outstanding group efforts, where all the team’s pieces mesh smoothly and efficiently.  The Warriors showed brief flashes of this type of performance against Detroit, but not enough to generate much optimism.  The second type of momentum is individual. where a single player suddenly makes a breakthrough or gains confidence.  The Warriors arguably had three breakthrough performances Wednesday night — Barnes suddenly seeing the open lanes and recognizing his ability to fill them; Jack once again hitting the big shots at a high rate (7-11); and Bogut looking quicker on defense as he slides from one spot to the next to (attempt to) clean up others’ messes.  These players couldn’t have picked a better time to return to form.  Chicago will pose a challenge on Friday, but the upcoming road trip could make or break the Warriors’ playoff chances.  The Warriors’ wins don’t need to be pretty to be encouraging, but they do need to be a result of the Warriors’ solid play and not just their opponents’ failings.

Adam Lauridsen

  • Steve La Porta

    yes, it’s becoming clear that barnes has a overdrive gear that even most nba players don’t have. once they hit 5th, that’s pretty much it. in the last week, even watching on tv, you could see the determination in his facial expression, and in his next stage elevation lift off that this kid may become someone very special.

    why is everyone making such a big deal about jack sticking around for 20 minutes shooting extra shots? what would you expect after a previously woeful 8 or 9 games (for some reason in the post-game interview he referred to it as a couple)? love you j.j., but, i don’t think so.

    bogut is so much fun to watch. he’s totally unpredictable.

    lastly, if landry doesn’t re-sign after the season, would the warriors think about going after maxziell (sp)? that dude is awesome.

  • believewhat

    I didn’t realize Nash was not a free agent. Do I want to give up Klay or Barnes for Nash, of course not. But may be Klay+Biedrins for Nash+Clark, I am not sure even this. Anyway, it is just fantasy to get one of my all time fav player come and play for my fav team.

    Also, tried to get opp 3FG% when a player A is on floor or off. I could get for season. Here is the shocker, opponent 3FG% is 44.7% when Bogut is on the floor. I knew our wing players are overhelping when Bogut is on the floor because Bogut still not in shape or so, but that figures to change. As per Barnes, when is on the floor opponent 3FG% is 36.5% for the season, Klay Thompson is better with 35.8% while Jarrett Jack is best of guards with 32.3% and Curry worse of guards with 36.6%. Team average is 34.4%. So, who is better than average defenders for team, Richard Jefferson at 29.8%, Green at 30.8%, Bazemore at 24.1% and Jack at 32.3%. That is, fresher legs are probably guarding the 3PT better with the exception of Barnes.

  • believewhat
  • rio kid

    Draymond, Draymond…he has lost his rookie humility and has lost his focus a bit. He will never be a good shooter; he is right now absolutely horrific as a shooter and needs to realize that his ill advised jumpers, I mean junkers, do not help his future, the team or anybody else. Festus is doing ok. He is cursed with big man hands of steel and for that there is little one can do but go from stone to. Biedrins has decent hands but he is, I don’t even know how to describe him. In theory with all the ball sharing the warriors do when they play like they should Biedrins should be able to get some lay ins but the mental block won’t permit it. He might do ok in Denver. No one can shoot there but they are still good and they go to the rack like nobodies businsess. The Eastern conference is horrible. Lakers would be the 2 seed in that conference. The Lakers will beat the Warriors the next two times they play. Kobe is that good – unfortunately. Lakers will make round one fun but will not beat the OKC, SA or Denver. Anyone else in the West they beat.

    Curry is pretty good.

  • Our Team

    Btw, I agree with you who think the Warriors often play better with Barnes in there. I love Barnes’ upside but he is very young, not nearly aggressive enough (yet), and it is fascinating to see how MJ is treating him in terms of his minutes and development. I mean 20 minutes of pt for the way he played last night was ridiculous, enough to really piss off the average player. I think that is exactly what MJ wants to see.

  • believewhat

    Forgetting 3PT shot, the following stat based on eFG% makes more sense.

    For the season, team’s eFG% is above average with Bogut, Barnes, Curry, David Lee, Klay and Jack with Bogut and closely followed by Lee as best 2.

    For the season, opponent’s eFG% is below average(lesser opponent eFG% the better) with lesser used bench players, i.e. if bench players not named Landry or Jack.

    The difference of eFG%(team’s eFG%-opponent’s eFG%) lead by the dubs top 6 players though, starters+Jack.

    So, in essence our bench outside Jack is giving great D but not enough scoring for it be advantage enough. If you go by this stat, it does make case to send Barnes to bench for Jefferson.

    http://.nba.com/teamOnOffDetails.html?TeamID=1610612744&Season=2012-13&SeasonType=Regular Season&MeasureType=Opponent&PerMode=Totals&GameSegment=&Period=0&OpponentTeamID=0&VsConference=&VsDivision=&Outcome=&Location=&DateFrom=03/01/2013&DateTo=03/14/2013&SeasonSegment=&Month=0&LastNGames=0&PlusMinus=N&splits=Y

  • Mr Mully

    It’s been a while since I’ve been here…has Beans made the ASG yet?

  • Mr Mully

    And anyone else find it funny that Kobe’s calling out dirty play when just a couple seasons ago he was pimp slapping defenders after all his shots? Living in SoCal seeing the demise of the Lakers…priceless.

  • believewhat

    Hi Mully, nice to you post again.

  • Mr Mully

    Hey BW, nice to see some old users still here. All I need is to hear CC’s succinct “no playoffs” and Felty’s slurping of Don Juan and I’ll feel right at home.

  • Our Team

    Mr. Mully, or how about cc’s “Curry sucks and he’s not a point guard”? (Our Team, formerly Curse of Mullin).

  • Our Team

    …and, yes, Beans did make the ASG (Section 125, best view of the song girls).

  • thewarriorsrule

    wow, what a struggle it was to beat the lowly pistons! 42 mins for curry and klay, 32 season high for bogut, 36 for lee, 30 for jack. fatigue has been an issue for the warriors in the 2nd half, and these are the type of games we need to give rest to our starters.

    it’s good to see a true center in the game at all times now at least! jackson finally learning. 32 for bogut and 15 for ezeli, i would like to see more of ezeli and biedrins until bogut is 100% though.

    mark jackson needs to learn to trust his bench: barnes, ezeli, landry, jefferson, green, bazemore, biedrins. yes, bench was missing last night, but it’s difficult to develop “a flow” when landry only gets 10 mins and jefferson 5 mins. oddly, landry is the odd one out when he should be taking more of lee’s minutes to give him rest. 2nd unit would not struggle so much if coach just mixed and matched some starters and bench players, offensive and defensive lineups together, instead of putting an “all-defensive” lineup together as the 2nd unit.

    barnes only 18 mins when he shot 6-7? how about moving barnes or klay to the bench as the 6th man to balance out the 1st and 2nd units?

    i have to disagree about barnes “seeing the lanes” suddenly this game though. i would blame it more on the piston’s poor defense!

    i think if barnes was “the man” on a rebuilding team, he could be the next pierce/melo, but it will never happen. i wonder how curry, klay, lee, and bogut will stunt his growth. barnes could work on his aggressiveness, but with 4 other players who can score, coach needs to find a way to maximize his skills, maybe make him or klay the 6th man because the 2nd unit has no scorers. 1st unit could use some more defensive players, like a dominic mcguire.

    klay needs to work on his consistency. i don’t think he’ll ever be a playmaker, rim attacker, or good defender, just a good sharpshooter. i would trade him for a slasher/better defender to complement curry.

    if warriors beat chicago, then we can start talking!

  • thewarriorsrule

    agree with chris L’s 2nd point: jack needs to be a steadying leader and opportunistic scorer, not feel the burden of leading the 2nd unit 1-on-1!

  • Mr Mully

    Nash? Have you guys watched Lakers games this year? Good guy/teammate but he’s more washed up than a beached whale. Plus we don’t need an older slower version of Steph off the bench, we need a defensive minded change of pace guard to settle things down when shots aren’t falling. Jack suits us just fine for now. Bring on Flop City!

  • believewhat

    Dubs are not good enough to blow out the teams. That said, they did lead the game pretty much the whole game and looked more like cruising or pacing.

  • knick

    Great post Adam :
    Curry is developing into a super star in front of our very eyes. So what if he turns the ball over a few times? What PG doesn’t. Durant committed 7 TO’s the other night and he doesn’t handle the ball as much. Give the kid a break already.
    This is the JJ we’ve all been waiting for, the facilitator, the one who probes to get quality shots for his team mates and takes high % ones himself. Hopefully he can build on it.
    Great game by HB. especially against Detroits swiss cheese defence. Seems he just walked in for dunks without any opposition. However against stiffer opposition the kid has a tendency to be indecisive. Should i shoot? should i dunks, should i pass? That’s probably the next part of his game to develop. Attacking the rim with conviction. Until then he can watch and learn from the bench. Besides Klay is a much reliable shooter.

    Once again Lee was as reliable as ever. I thought his rebounding will take a dip wit bogut in the mix but he just keeps it going. Top five PF in the league today.

    Against NY Bogut was shown on the MSG channel grabbing his leg with a grimace. Guy is in obvious pain. He is a true warrior and genuinely willing to help his mates. With him Curry and Lee the GSW have some truly amazing players heading into the playoffs. Can’t wait.

  • RickP

    Bogut played a nice game. good to see.

    I was watching him closely. I noticed that he usually dribbles lefty, but seem to shoot his FT’s righty. If he runs at a shooter, he generally raises his left arm. The right elbow was the one that got badly injured.

    At the end of the game he looked like he was in pain and I understand that his back got iced later. My guess, is that he gutted out a pretty good game while playing in pain.

    Watching him, I had the impression that the ankle may be the least of his problems.

  • moto

    (63)thewoeyrsrule, hope you read what (67)knick said in re. to barnes. just putting a young player onto a team where they need him to play major minutes and run the offense through him frequently would not change his personality nor his hoops i.q. yes, it could give him fatter offensive stats from the bigger minutes and volume of touches and plays run through him. monroe for Det is a very good case in point — drafted by a rock bottom team, he started immediately and became a principal in their offense. the superficial press service stats made him look good, and the fans around here kept whining that they wanted him and not udoh, looking at those numbers. the fans for his team aren’t quite as impressed by his fat stats and fierce looking scowls because they watch him play defense, and see their team in the bottom of the standings every year he’s played.

    comparing barnes to pierce or anthony reflects a superficial understanding of those two players. pierce is a ferocious competitor with 2-guard ball skills who’s likely ending up in the h.o.f., and anthony led his college team to a championship through opponents focused on stopping him. like stephen jackson said, they ‘make love to pressure.’

  • The Oracle

    Long time no post. How is everyone?

    I can’t believe the pistons down only 8 went an end of game possession using all 24 seconds on the shot clock without taking a shot or a 3, then didn’t foul. It’s as if they gave up on the game with plenty of time left to come back. Strange.

  • KennySeagle, Emperor of the North

    a win is a win

    de-troit the team still bet-ter

    then the ci-ty of

  • dr_john

    The Oracle and The Emperor of the North on a same-day tribute to Mr Mully?

    Any questions?

  • jsl

    Yes. Must Curry be played 43 mpg?

  • jsl

    Why is Barnes playing so little?

  • jsl

    Where has Bogut been all our lives?

  • jsl

    Can Lee play any better than he has the last three games?

  • jsl

    Has anyone seen a better pick than the one Bogut set for Barnes on HB’s first Q3 slam?

  • jsl

    Why is Klay playing in Q4 every game, no matter how poorly he’s playing, while Barnes sits?

  • jsl

    Why did it take Jax so long to get it that Ezeli and that body of his keep opponents out of the paint?

  • Coltraning

    And why are there no full-time jazz clubs featuring Bay area jazz musician in the bay area anymore? Where have you gone, Sonny Buxton?

  • Steve

    Jeff Van Gundy talks NBA/Warriors basketball on Warriors Rountable (KNBR – prior to GSW/Rockets game last week)

  • Oakland Warriors

    Post 79-

    M Jax also wasted a brilliant 54 point outing by Steph Curry in MSG by allowing Tyson Chandler to grab 28 rebounds.

    All Jax had to do was play Ezeli more, and Chandler’s rebounding total gets cut down by at least half! That was the difference in the game, simple and plain.

    Coach Jackson’s mysterious doghouse for Ezeli has cost us at least 3-4 games this season, in my opinion.

  • Steve

    Rusty Simmons from earlier today on the current state of the Warriors (95.7FM The Game)

  • Steve
  • Steve

    NBAMate (“Probably Australia’s best NBA blog”) with their weekly wrap of “the things you should know in basketball”.

  • RickP

    There are lots of venues for jazz in the Bay Area.

  • Steve

    Team grades at the third-quarter mark

    Golden State Warriors

    Grade: B

    This is another team slipping, and we’re not quite sure why. Well, we know their defense has been suspect and Jarrett Jack was struggling for a small stretch, but this team was supposed to be scary good once Andrew Bogut came back. Instead, the Warriors have to be a little scared they’re in danger of missing the playoffs. The future in Oakland is bright, but I’d love to see this team get back into the groove it showed in the first two months of the season.

  • Steve

    “The NBA Knows Jarrett Jack”

    Jack was the 22nd overall pick in 2005 and has shared point guard duties with the Portland Trail Blazers, Indiana Pacers, Toronto Raptors and New Orleans Hornets in addition to this season with Golden State. The Warriors acquired him in a three-team deal with the Hornets and 76ers last July.

    There are four rookies on Golden State’s roster — Harrison Barnes, Kent Bazemore, Festus Ezeli and Draymond Green — three of which have played in at least 61 games. The fourth, Bazemore, has appeared in 45 contests. Seven players are under 25 years old and Richard Jefferson, 32, is the only teammate older than the 29-year-old.

    “There’s always an adjustment period when you put a group of different guys together, but we were able to gel really quickly,” said Jack. “That’s a testament to the front office, doing a great job and also to the guys in the locker room. The IQs are really high as we’ve been able to come together and be effective.”

  • Steve
  • rio kid

    Warriors are ok for now. They have good team that will be a little better even next year. They have anothe year with the Biedrins and Jefferson contracts of 10 million or so each that contribute as close to zero has humanly possible though Jefferson does not hurt us when he is out there.

    We have some really good players but no Hall of Famers except for possibly Curry and that is a long shot. Well that being said I will be happy just to get to the playoffs on a regular basis and watch some good basketball.

  • I yiyi yi

    Aah RIP Kjazz and da cool clubs up on telegraph ave.The original Yoshis. But our true American art form is alive and well, but you have to look under the rug sometimes. Or at the schools and the bars. The death of my favorite style of music has been greatly exaggerated. Too many true believers for it to die.

    Looking at you know who…. Cheers to all basketball and Jazz fans!!

    Go Warriors beat da Bulls

  • Dubcakes

    @80 Coltraning: FYI, on Sonny Buxton. He was the co owner of Pearls now closed. Currently, he’s on 91.1

  • Coltraning

    I know. It was poetic and rhetorical in intent. Played pearl’s many times. It was the last serious FULLTIME jazz club for Bay Area players. I am well aware of the jazz venues in the Bay, Rick P., trust me. There are not renotely as many as there were even 10 years ago, let alone 20. As you must know, there is not one full-time jazz club now. And restaurants where the music is background don’t count. And Yoshis doesn’t count. Has not been a FULLTIME jazz club for a long time. Too bad…nothing like a 6 night run at a club. NYC is the only place left w a number of 6-7 day a week clubs.

  • dr_john

    Topics come up now and then. Fine. I join in, or initiate.

    My own late night (after game) listening was Eberhard Weber, Pharaoh Sanders, Alice Coltrane — and The Fantastic Expedition of Dillard and Clark. But it could be wholly other or not at all.

    I’m here for the Warriors. They’ve lost enough already. Been here for that. Time to enjoy the swing of the pendulum.

    Do you guys go the jazz blogs and talk about the Warriors?

    Don’t worry, I don’t need reminders about scrolling. I don’t scroll Warriors fans here anyway. It’s not a bother.

  • Coltraning

    Dr J
    Take a breath. No need to be contentious, churlish or try to censor. None of us need to be the blog content police. You post on all kinds of stuff and I have no problem w it. Nor do I recall anyone calling you out for your discursions. Sometimes they interest me. Esp the poetic stuff. When they don’t I just skip it. Pretty simple and not fire the occasional compulsion to be unpleasant about it. The variety of the board from Stegner to trips to France to your wilderness rambles to yes, music to types of libations, all fair topics.

  • Coltraning

    Me? I’d much rather read an interesting post on Wallace Stegner than the 47th variation of smallball versus big ball, for instance. But I dont feel the need to be a curmudgeon about it. I simply skip them. Pretty simple solution.

  • Dubcakes

    @93 Coltraning: just commiserating with you…you are correct about Yoshis. Last year, they had to book other types of musicians because they couldn’t just do it on “jazz alone”.

    Kidding aside, you could move to NY…

    @94 John: Okay. Last post about jazz. We are all here for the Warriors. Portland just scored against the Knicks on TNT (103-90). Dallas got whipped against Spurs tonight.

  • Webster

    Hey Dr. Jay, beats inventing other posters to argue with (yourself)

  • Dubcakes

    Portland just won…105-90. Poor knicks. Blazers spoil Felton’s return.

  • Steve

    NBA talk with Ken Berger…..

    and Zach Harper (CBSSports.com)


text:
It seems cliché to meet an average Pole and have him tell me a story of heroism at the time of the Holocaust, yet that is what happened to me the other day. It wasn’t a random occurrence though; it took place at an event that is unique to Krakow in this modern era. In this lost but re-emerging Jewish community there are many people who gravitate to the JCC here. Some are Jewish having survived the war and maintained a Jewish life despite forty years of communism. Some have Jewish roots and are searching for their identity, coming to classes, and connecting with Jewish life they uncovered only recently.

Others however, are of a different breed—they are avowedly not Jewish, yet love Judaism, dedicate their time to the JCC Krakow, and volunteer to help enhance the center of Jewish activity in Krakow. These 35-40 volunteers are all in their teens and early twenties and for many different reasons they find themselves at the steps of the JCC with one mantra—I want to help!

Last week, a group of volunteers from the JCC as well as volunteers from the ‘Jewish Culture Festival’ and Jewish Studies Department of Jagiellonian University got together to clean up the New Jewish cemetery in Krakow. Founded in 1800, the cemetery is prominent in size (11 acres) and its home to many rabbis, mystics and community leaders in Krakow over the past 200 years. Unfortunately the cemetery is in disrepair –paths blocked off, no map, graves broken and shrubs taking over the stones.

cemetery cleanup

I joined them and found a group of twenty or so youngsters (myself included!) and one elder gentleman, and here is where the story begins. Curious, I went over and introduced myself. “Hi my name is Andrzej Wsołek” he told me in a proper English. “What brings you to this cemetery today?” I asked him. His response intrigued me: “I am ashamed for the Polish citizens of Krakow that this cemetery is in such disarray”.  At that point I was ready to listen to a story of a Polish citizen who was embarrassed by the actions of his parents or relatives and has been quietly attempting to assuage his guilt through acts of kindness towards the Jewish community.

Just the opposite.

andrzej cemetery2

Andrzej told me that his father saved a Jew over the course of two years during the Nazi occupation. The Jew, A judge named Leon Kurtzer, was friends and colleagues with his father, Tadeusz. When the Nazis invaded they first dismissed all Jews from working in the courts and later planned to send him to the ghetto, eventually to be liquidated. Tadeusz Wsołek and some other lawyers and judges hatched a plan to hide and save Leon for the remainder of the war. For two years they clandestinely hid him in an apartment they rented and brought him food every day– two years! They also brought him work from the office and he continued to work from his hiding place!

The punishment for harboring a Jew was set out clearly by Hans Frank, Hitler’s General Governor in Poland and known to all Poles: death! The Schindler History museum which focuses less on Schindler and more on Krakow during the war, documents the German warnings for protecting a Jew and shows pictures of hanged Poles who dared violate their regulations. Andrzej’s family and friends truly were heroes.

Leon Kurtzer remained friends with Tadeusz after the war, returning to his position of Judge even assuming a role of president of the court for several years. He died in 1968 without a family but with Jewish friends and non-Jewish friends, remaining forever grateful to those brave Poles who saved his life. How many more stories of heroism will I uncover walking the streets of Krakow?

The last exhibition of the Schindler Factory Museum is a room with two books side by side, each one with a list. On the left is the book of love, in which a list of several thousand names of Poles who selflessly saved Jews during the Nazi occupation. To the right is the book of hate which speaks of another list, of several thousand names of Polish collaborators with the Nazis. Side by side these two books present the polarity of expression in wartime; however, seeing them and then realizing that hundreds of thousands of other names do not appear in either book represents a glimpse of the complex polish condition under Nazi rule and the complicated Polish reaction to the singling out of Jews to be ghettoized and liquidated.

book of hate

It also highlights the gallantry of spirit and heroic composure of those involved in saving someone’s life at the risk of losing their own. I asked him why he had not pursued the mark of ‘righteous gentile’ for his father who died years ago, he replied that his parents are dead, the Jew had no relatives and died in 1968 and no one has a trace of this story other than Andrzej, his family, and now me.

Yad Vashem may not consider his father to be a righteous gentile, but I do. I have a feeling that Andrzej will continue to clean the Jewish cemetery and maintain a positive attitude on the world and on how each individual has the capacity to influence that world in small or large measure. Tadeusz Wsołek and his friends were heroes for saving lives; that spirit was inherited by his son who acts justly, does acts of kindness and offers a smile to whomever he encounters.


text:
Saturday, January 21, 2012

the trans debate. call me a post-trans woman.

whoa. political hot potato!

i got annihilated for referring to trannys as 'guys in dresses'. my mistake. i was going on the meaning of the word that i grew up with in the UK, namely, transvestite.

i also made the mistake of looking up the meaning of words on google and wikipedia. I think this is where the general public gets their info, after all. that too, was a deadly error. i'm surprised i wasn't summarily executed, for "allow others to define us". jesus wept. i wasn't allowed to ask around for current definitions, as that comes under the 'derailing' category of "asking for a clue".

i got accused of derailing so many times, i wrote the the guy who maintains the "derailing for dummies' website, asking them to include 'accusing people of derailing' as a derailing method in its own right.

so what does tranny mean? apparently it means whatever the fuck you like, and don't argue. its the T world's new N word. we can use it on ourselves, and on each other (but only nicely), although we aren't allowed to dislike the word or deny its applicability to ourselves, because that somehow implies judgement of others. and no one else can call any of us it, even those of us who are.

so, i asked for clarification of 'transvestite'. i was hoping for  a simple answer. well, no. apparently TV now covers everything from the eponymous 'guy in a frock' , through bi-gender curious, genderqueer, gender fuck, drag queens, intersex, dual-spirited, agendered and whatever sexual fetish you fancy through to full time crossdressers (male or female identified) and pre and non-surgical trans women.

the term 'trans' and 'tranny' include all that lot as well as pre and post operative 'true' transsexuals (to use a medical term).

i guess i'm conservative. i recognise the gender binary (intersex issues aside), so i changed sides . the bi-gendered and gender queer crew don't recognise the gender binary, so they are in a whole different world, to me and most of society. i'm not condemning them, that's their right and i hope they have fun.

i spent a long time in that genderqueer space, when i was getting over my self-image issues (which were based around fear of actually being a guy, but in surgical drag). looking at 9 year old photos solved that. my friends and i saw a stunning young woman. "but you're so pretty", said a 12 year old friend. was i? my memories of that time were of paranoia, that i looked like a drag queen. the proof that that self-image was way off the mark made me reconsider a lot of things. So i no longer cling to a 'bit of a guy, bit of a girl' picture i held onto like a shield, so i wouldn't have to fail at being what i am, a woman.

the labelling argument grew heated. for not wanting to be described as a 'tranny', when it meant so many different things, i was called 'transphobic', 'homophobic', 'separatist' etc etc etc. i was shouted down and personally attacked, mainly by those occupying the genderqueer ground.

so i went looking for a new label. here's some quotes, please excuse the typos:

cap'n Flow In
i've been talking to a researcher who is interviewing post operative mtf transsexuals. turns out that all of us, so far, have a problem with the trans term, especially as it now applies to so many who do not recognise the gender binary.
for us, the term 'post operative mtf transsexual' is accurate, but unhandy. we don't want to be called 'trans women' due to the ill defined nature of trans, but are not necessarily happy with 'women' since it does not acknowledge our reality. we are searching for a term.
how does 'non-cis woman' work for others who fit into the medical defenition of pre/post operative mtf transsexual? i'm not very interested in what people who are NOT in the category think, as this is about us.

ANONYMOUS  know I'm not your target market for answering but I feel all these divisive labels just end up dividing the community further. From someone relatively new to the community it seems to often dissolve into fighting, back stabbing and bitching. I see having a whole host of labels as almost a way to define a "class system" withing the community. Surely we can all play nicely together as one? Help each other out? Fight for each other instead of against each other? Is that not the point of being part of these communities?

Flow In you may see a class system, but that means you have a belief that any one state is better than any other, i don't. i believe that labels are quite handy when describing things, especially when the labels currently used are so wide. 'transwoman' can now refer to a gay/striaght guy in a dress. that means it is no longer useful when used in the wider community, or in here. it is quite possible for a group to consist of diverse, distinct, groups, and yet still function nicely. pre/post operative true transsexuals are a real minority group, and suggestions that i meekly submit to a melding my uniquie identity to a larger, amorphous, genderqueer majority simply to avoid being seen as 'elitist' 'separatist' or 'divisive' are not acceptable.
alliances, or 'umbrellas' (and i reject the term 'spectrum', unless if goes from binary cis through genderqueer to true trans) are made up of distinct groups, working and playing together.

this is after days and days of fighting with the umbrella 'borg.
unfortunately, it has led to division within our community. Some of us even debate wether there is a community or not. i kind of like it, since lots of people pass through different stages in their life, and its good to have a group that will support that. the main argument for an 'umbrella' seems to be politically motivated. putting our voices together gives us more clout, more ability to get legislative and medical change.

i'm in a very small minority, and bullies are attempting to silence my voice because it is 'off message'. ie. i do not agree we are all the same. that is no good.

i'm lucky. i'm articulate and reasonably calm. when i get shit thrown at me by my peers i'll stand my ground and keep stating my case, keep trying to understand where they are coming from (although apparently trying to understand someone is 'derailing') so that a stable common ground can be reached.
lots of my post-op peers are not the same:

As a TS seperatist I see very little actual common ground with the TG borg.. about as much as I have with the LGB community actually.. I'm straight female so their issues aren't mine, I'm happy to "conform" in the binary space, but by MY choice. Far happier there than I am being forced under the LGBT "umbrella" by default. I think the "umbrella" is too wide.. RuPaul is a perfect example with people arguing that HE has a right to be under the TG "umbrella" because he pretends to be a woman (and enforces a lot of the bad stereotypes that all TS/TG people are just gay or lesbian crossdressers or drag queens/kings) wehen the reality is he is so far from our groupings that he should be excluded.. He's not TG/TS so doesn't belong.. the same as anybody who just wears opposite gender clothing "because they want to" should be excluded.. cis-males in dresses aren't TG (yuck) they are exploring some sort of fetish. They really don't belong. By allowing these abberations and also allowing ourselves to be forced into the LGB movement has done decades of harm to our very simple human and civil rights and respect campaign. I know I have upset quite a lot of the borg recently wth this line but.. The black civil rights movement wasn't exactly welcoming of white supremacists and didn't exactly allow them to join their core groups. The LGB campaigns aren't exactly welcoming of straight heterosexual people, and even less welcoming of a binary conforming straight heterosexual TS woman. I will work with allies under an "umbrella" but only when those allies don't attach a label which doesn't really apply to them and then force me to conform to it as well. I wrote a paper not long ago which was universally attacked under the title "warning, transsexual woman ahead, cis-gendered crossdressers need not apply" .. The borg don't like TS seperatism to find a voice and lay down some logical boundaries :)

this went down like a lead ballon. it appears the non 'true' trans people want to make us the same as them, by whatever method necessary. they'll quote brain studies, they'll quote difficulties in medical and legal situations, they quote phobias and discrimination. all cart-before-the-horse kind of stuff. for me, and many of my contemporaries, its simple. you get the wrong body, and you do something about it. some of us don't get surgery, but the initial state is still there. why does the 'borg' keep trying to assimilate us? we aren't going to say goodbye, simply because we've been acknowledged....

i have a feeling theres a deep psych thing going on. to get accused of a class system, of elitism etc. repeatedly, to get accused of value judgment, when all i was doing was defining existant labels?

here's my one of my main antagonists speaking, about derailing:

No, this is what derailing is:

It's fine for people to disagree, engage in healthy and constructive debates, talk about issues whilst maintaining a safe space and not making people in the discussion un-safe/isolated, speak or question respectfully, without getting to the point of "you must educate me on this identity/idea I think is really weird/not legitimate and that I know nothing about, and really have no desire to, and I will only dismiss what you say once you have laboured and but so much thought into your response"... But the sum of what some people have been doing on several topics on this page has been more than this, and has usually made value statements against people and their identities, their lived experiences, putting people down, silencing, policing identity and who belongs and who doesn't belong, and has been exclusionary and quite unsafe in the way people have conducted themselves.

This is because i was trying to defend the minority position that true transsexuals are not the same as crossdressers, and that i don't like to be called 'tranny'. this particular speaker said "you cannot say..." "shut up.." "go away..." etc. accusing me of value judgements in every statement. i'm fairly conscious of my intentions, and i did not deliberately do ANY derailing, judging, or excluding. in fact, i would repeatedly state that defining of difference explicitly did not intend judgement.

ah well, the debate has died down for now.

and i've an idea:

'post-trans', i was pre-trans when i was trying to be a boy, then i started to transition, so i was trans, and now, about 11 years later (9 years after surgery), i've moved through that. am i now post-trans. ?

so, i shall no longer say i am a 'transwoman' (since that now includes gay men in dresses). i am a 'post-trans woman'.

No comments:

Post a Comment

please be nice.


text:
Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Tolkien, Professor of English Language

J.R.R Tolkien, University of Leeds
On the 1st Ocober 1924 J.R.R. Tolkien started the new academic year at the University of Leeds as Professor of English Language.
After his appointment as Reader in English Language in 1920, he had been given the responsibility for the linguistic teaching of the language side of the syllabus in the English Department.

When George Gordon left Leeds Tolkien was a candidate for the Leeds chair. In the event it went to Lascelles Abercrombie, however the Vice-Chancellor at Leeds promised Tolkien that a new Professorship of English Language would be created.

2015 Tolkien Society Seminar, 4th July
           The Hilton, Neville Street, Leeds

The Tolkien Society