Sunday Selections

Trudging up Tunica
I decided to venture up north today and escape "The Rouge" for a little while to do a little hiking and running. I had heard from some passing conversations with other runners about running hills in Southeast Louisiana. Hills in Louisiana? This was something I had to investigate. It turns out there is 'some' topography here and I didn't know what to do with land that wasn't flat. So I trudged up the hills on a nice little 40 minute or so run. Hope to hit the hiking trails next time I'm up here, but I now have a place to run some good hill workouts for this coming 1/2 marathon season! Check out sometime, I hear there are waterfalls during the rainy season as well! (That's me in the picture running up the Tunica hills)

Classical Rocky IV
If you have never seen Rocky IV with Sylvester Stallone, you are missing out on a great East -vs- West movie where the west prevails in a raging fit of fists. It pits Rocky, the fighter from Philly, against Drago, the Soviet juggernaut that, when he punches something, "he destroys it." What it really comes down to is that its a movie about the arms race, but in a different sense of the word "arms."

In the end hard work, perseverance, and the American spirit prevail and Rocky wins over the Soviet crowd and Drago is defeated. But, after being given a history lesson the other day by Morning Edition on NPR, I believe that ole Stallone borrowed his plot line from the classical music world. What, Stallone cheat? Nah...

It is the 50 year anniversary of the Van Cliburn destruction of the Soviets during the height of the Cold War. Van Cliburn...never heard of him have you? Turns out, during one of the tenses times of the Cold War, the Soviet Union hosted an international competition, inviting the best and brightest pianist to compete in its Tchaikovsky competition. Van Cliburn, a lanky 23 year old Texan, singly handily gave hope back to the downtrodden American people in the doom of this time (the Soviets had just launched Sputnik), and he did it no less playing classical Soviet pieces by Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff. When official inquiries were brought to Kruschev concering whether they would be permitted to award the prize to a non-Soviet pianist, Khrushchev himself replied, “Is Cliburn the best?” he asked. “Then give him first prize.”

Van Cliburn arrived back in New York to a ticker tape parade and was seen as a national hero for "stickin it to the commies." But his accomplishments did not stop there, with several of his recordings becoming some of the greatest sellers of all time, including the first ever classical music LP to go platinum, his Tchaikovsky concerto with the RCA Symphony Orchestra conducted by Kirill Kondrashin. I am shocked that I had never heard of such an interesting story and in a way, I feel that its better than Rocky IV. It was real, something that affected history in a meaningful way through of true talent, and we all know that Stallone lacks a little in that department(Ever seen the movie Daylight?). But, I guess to make this story really complete, I wish Van Cliburn would have looked down another Pianist and stated in a firm Texan accent. "I will destroy you!" Now that my friend, would make Classical Music concerts AWESOME!
Cheers

Jaded Olympics and the Vladinator

Summer Olympic Medals
This summer, as many of you know, the world will converge on China for a couple of weeks of intense competition of endurance, strength, grace, and a little bit of luck. I am stoked for this years Olympics with my hopes riding high for the distance events for the U.S. We should be sending a strong delegation, aimed at winning multiple medals in several events in which we have suffered as of late. *cough* 1500 meters anyone? we're not here to discuss how well we will do as a team at the Olympics, but about the bling that we will be bringing home.

This years medals will have inlays of traditional Chinese jade, and I find the design of the medals very striking. I am impressed with the intricate details of a modern Olympic medal that keeps with several Chinese traditions. Each medal will have an inlay of gem quality jade on the reverse side of the medal. The world renowned jade has just been finished being carved and will be sent to the Shanghai mint where the medals will be cast in June. White jade will be used in the gold medals, a light white-green jade for the silver, and a solid green for the bronze.

Overall a very striking look for what will hopefully be a great Olympics, better than the Torino donuts of 2 years ago. BUT if I were good enough, which I'm not, to have a shot of winning a medal, it could look like a lump of coal, I'd still sing the Star and Stripes and wear it around my neck!

P3: Rise of the Putin
I know I know, Putin is no longer going to be the President of Russia, but I just had to say my piece on the elections of this past weekend. Vladimir Putins hand picked successor to the Russian presidency, Dmitri Medvedev, won in a landslide. And, just like a village below a landslide, there was no chance of Russia escaping a Medvedev victory.

Medvedev should have won easily with all of the media he was able to grab. Its not like the state run media favorably gave Medvedez preferential treatment or anything. I give Putin credit for pulling Russia out of the doldrums when the Ruble was worth about as much as toilet paper. Bolstered by rising energy prices and smart economic management (aka government strong-arming) Russia is now reemerging from its shadow of the super power it once was and becoming a big time power in world politics. Hopefully Medvedev will work on ties with the West and when he takes term, he will embrace Obama (I know, getting hopeful here) as a friend and set many wrongs that have been had between our two great nations!
Dasvidania

Short...

50 best Eco-Blogs
The Times (The UK version, not the NY Times) released its "Top 50" ecoblogs on the web. I have started to go through the list, but have not dug to deep into what all the list includes. There are a couple of good ones up that I enjoy, maybe I will soon have some more "Favorite Blogs" to post about!


China 1 Child Policy
I have not written about China in awhile and frankly I'm getting pumped for this years summer Olympics. But the 24/7 all things Olympics posts will come soon enough, but its time to talk about babies! China has had the controversial "One Child" policy since the 1970's but are exploring the possibility of easing the policy in the next few years. With a quickly growing older population, the government is worried about having enough base population (us young guns) to be able to support the elders. There is also a worrisome gender gap, as the propensity for wanting a boy has been the tradition. It will be interesting to see what China decides to do. If nothing else they could just have a National Day of Conception like their next door neighbor. Dasvidania