Music of the day: Jazz Organ Fellowship Gala

In the spectrum of popular jazz instruments, I'd say organ probably falls somewhere between violin and guitar. Joey DeFrancesco and Jimmy Smith are as big names as any other jazz greats but for some reason organ is not getting the attention it deserves. Only if someone would take action! And that someone is Pete Fallico, Founder and Executive Director of JOF (Jazz Organ Fellowship.) I really admire his efforts in raising the awareness of such a wonderful instrument and its players. I attended its 2nd annual gala/concert last night and saw wonderful performances by 3 organists: Tammy Hall, Atsuko Hashimoto and Trudy Pitts. Pitts is this year's JOF honoree. I am a fan of the organ trio format because most of them features a guitarist. And this performance featured the great (and local guitar hero) Mimi Fox as well as Yukata Hashimoto from Japan (husband of Atsuko)

This event was very inspiring. Maybe I should organize one for jazz violin some day!

Topic of the day: NIMBY

Just learned this new term (well, it's new to me) today because of the eviction of Ike's. Long story short: Ike's is a sandwich shop in the (SF) Castro neighbourhood. It was so successful that there were long lines outside the shop. And that caused problem with the people living upstairs, who complained about garbage and noise. Not sure if the complaint worked but turns out Ike's does not have the required license for its operation, according to the City. Anyway, it is facing eviction. Is this an act of "Not-in-my-back-yard"-ism? I dunno.

Sports highlights: Silva vs Sonnen, former F1 drivers in NASCAR

I have not watched any of Anderson Silva's fight live before this Sat but I'll make sure I do next time. The fight last Sat just added some more to his already legendary status. He was taken down and was dominated all 5 rounds and did not look like he had anything left to fight back. And then he did it! He submitted Sonnen. I guess that's why he's a legend.

Three former F1 drivers (that I know of) competed in NASCAR races this weekend. Both Villeneuve (the former F1 champ) and Piquet Jr did well in the Nationwide race (finished 8th and 7th, respectively) but they were 1-uped by Juan Pablo Montoya, who won his 2nd Sprint Cup races in his career. Both times he did in on a road course rather than oval. I guess he hopes Sprint Cup has more road course races than just 2 times per year!

Music of the day: Legend of the Ring

Just read an article about "Legend of the Ring", a condensed version of Wagner's masterpiece (consist of 4 operas) This is a funny quote from that review:

[it] resembles nothing so much as a PowerPoint mockup of one of the opera world's richest and most majestic creations. This is opera as performed by recent business school graduates; it feels as though the libretto is studded with "net-net," "bottom line" and "at the end of the day.

Well, I'm still curious enough that I might watch it some day!

Topic of the day: Simkins Hall renamed

I remember this dorm. One of our good friends from Texas used to live there. And it was the center of a recent controversy. For all these years we were at UT, we didn't know the name was dedicated to a former law professor who was a Klan member. I can't imagine being an African American knowing that fact could live in that dorm happily.

Star of the day: England World Cup team captain

His name is Mark Reynolds, a computer programmer. His team will start playing today in Lacrosse world championship hosted in Manchester. This event is just like its soccer equivalent, played every 4 years. Still, I will root for Team USA to recapture the title from Canada. I watched Team USA played against Major League Lacrosse All-Star team last week. Those guys are GOOD.

Topic of the day: NASCAR x Transformers

As a fan of both, I'm really excited that the next Transformers movie will feature NASCARs! From this link, you could see both #88, 48 and 42 (in NASCAR, they are driven by Dale Earnhardt Jr, Jimmie Johnson and Juan Pablo Montoya, respectively) I can't imagine Junior and JJ's cars to be decepticons but the #42 car fits that image!

香港 vs 美國

在香港，打警察一巴，上到法庭，官考慮判感化。
在美國，警察槍殺人，上到法庭，官已輕判了事。

Sports highlights: UFC, NASCAR at Daytona, CFL Kickoff, World cup

When Fedor lost the week before, naturally the attention turned to: who will be the next Fedor? Well, I am pretty sure both UFC heavyweights that fighted this weekend: Lesnar and Carwin, did not want to suffer the fate of Fedor, losing to a lesser opponent or be submitted. Lesnar almost did the former in the first round but Carwin was the one submitted in the second round. It was exciting to watch.

I am not a fan of Dale Earnhardt Jr (or his dad) but I was happy to see him winning the Nationwide race at Daytona running the number (3) that belonged to his dad. It was emotional. And the Sprint Cup race at Daytona was equally good. Hate to say this but the big wrecks were something to watch.

And of course, there were world cup quarter finals that featured quite a few instant-classic moments. The top one gotta be Suarez's handball save of the goal that would have sent his team out of the tournament and the subsequent missed PK by Gyan.

With all these events going on, I didn't realize it's CFL's kick off weekend! Thanks to CFL's official site, I caught the highlight of an exciting (high scoring) comeback win by Saskatchewan Rough Riders over the team that beat them in last Grey Cup, Montreal Alouettes.

Sports highlights: Fedor, F1, NASCAR, World Cup

What was the biggest upset of the week? I would say it was the top ranked MMA fighter Fedor losing to Werdum in their StrikeForce fight, not to mention, in the first round, by submission. It seems to me that Fedor was caught off guard and made a bad mistake. And he summed it up the best: "The one who doesn't fall, doesn't stand up." This perfectly described another fighter on the same card, Cung Le: he rebounded from his first loss in MMA, by beating the same opponent Scott Smith. He looked to be in a much better shape than the last time, when he just came back from a hiatus to acting in movies. His kicks were as spectacular as ever. I guess StrikeForce would be especially happy to see Cung Le back to his form after their biggest star Fedor fell.

Not much of an upset in F1. It was shown after the England vs Germany WC match so I almost missed it (and it's on FOX, a channel available at home!) When I tuned in, Webber has crashed already. Vettel had a good lead on Hamilton while Kobayashi was hogging up the traffic. I also saw Hamilton got "penalized" for passing the safety car. His was a pit drive-through penalty. How much position did he lose after he took the penalty? None! That was actually quite amazing and showed how far ahead he was in front of Kobayashi. Another highlight of the race was Kobayashi delayed the mandatory pit stop (for tire changing) until the last few laps of the race. When he came out of the pit, he was behind former champ Alonzo and the move he made to pass Alonzo was a pretty good one. That's Asian power on display!

Talking about Asian power, we saw Japan and South Korea advanced to the round of 16 in WC while traditional power houses (and recent champs) France and Italy went home. Although no one predicted either France and Italy would did great in the tournament, the way they went down could be considered as minor upsets too.

Finally, the upset I was rooting for in NASCAR didn't happen. It seems like Kyle Busch and Jimmie Johnson win every weekend (the Nationwide and Sprint Cup series, respectively) Danica finally returned to the Nationwide series but has yet another dissappointing finish. Looking forward to her next race in 2 weeks!

Topic of the day: Happy Father's Day

Well, actually it was a whole weekend: started with Dim Sum at Koi Palace on Saturday and ended with crepes at U Ave in Palo Alto. Of course, there were more in addition to food in between! The highlight was Palo Alto World Music Day (I know the website left a lot to be desired. I wasn't able to find the schedule/map on it at all) Basically the musicians played scattering throughout U Ave and you won't miss them if you just walk down the street. I enjoyed the performance of "Sound of China" (4 Guzheng + Pipa/Erhu), Palo Alto Jazz Quintet and Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra.

The organizer planned to have this as an annual Father's Day event. I'm looking forward to the next one!

Sports highlights: Green, Zito and Allgaier

Barry Zito beat his former team, the A's, for the first time on Sat, and has now defeated every MLB team, which I think is quite an achievement! According to Sportsnet Central, his record was 109-6 when he has 4 or more run support. His overall record for the current reason is 7-2. So, I feel bad for rooting against him in his down years as a Giant. He might not deserve that huge contract but he probably deserves more credit than given to him.

I think giving English goalie, Robert Green, a green jersey for the England vs. USA world cup match was a big mistake. He didn't need the constant reminder for his inexperience. Maybe the Apple Daily analyst is right: the best goalie on this team is worse than the worst one on the German team.

I don't have much time to watch sports this weekend but I did catch the NASCAR Nationwide race. Can you believe a pro racer would shift to a wrong gear? Well, Justin Allgaier did that in his #12 car by shifting from 2nd to 1st when he meant to shift to 3rd! Too bad 'coz he could have done much better than finishing 8th.

Finally, a big applause to NBC for broadcasting the first ever NCAA Rugby 7 championship. I think they did a good job in educating the audiences about the game. I have been watching for almost a year but still learned a great deal. Congrat to the Utah Utes for upsetting the Cal Bears in OT and won it all. What an exciting game!

Topic of the day: if you are a sports star, it is taking instead of stealing

I am referring to this incident: a Seattle Donut shop employee called 911 to report someone came in and stole some donuts. And that someone was not charged by the police. Well, that someone is Seattle Seahawk's new receiver Golden Tate. Don't try this unless you're a sports star (doesn't have to be that good as Tate hasn't even played a pro game yet)
BTW, the donut shop has recently signed a deal to sell donuts at Seatle Seahawk's stadium. I bet no one want to jeopadize that relationship, right?

Topic of the day: Foreigner to headline pre-race concert at Atlanta

My first reaction to this NASCAR.com headline is: Why is this news? Do we have to hire local bands to do the concert since this is in the South?

Then I remember: Foreigner is the band with the hit song "I want to know what love is"
Well, I was not the only one with this reaction. Check out the comments on my link. Some people do think the concert should feature country musicians.

Musician of the day: Pat Martino

Pat Martino Live at Yoshi's was one of my favourite jazz guitar CD. He was playing with organist Joey DeFrancesco and drummer Billy Hart on that disc. Finally I have seen the "real" thing: Martino played at Yoshi's in a trio setting again this week. This time was in SF though. (The CD was recorded in Oakland in 2001. The SF branch didn't exist back then.) And the organist was Tony Monaco. I liked his playing so much that I bought his CD, A New Generation: Paesanos On the New B3, back in 2004. Interestly, that CD also featured Joey DeFrancesco as guest.

I don't need to sing more praises for Martino's playing. Just want to mention the story he told: back when he was 16 years old, he played in a club call Small's Paradise in Harlem (BTW, I just read from a biography of Jimi Hendrix that he has also played there before he was huge.) And there was another nearby club in Harlem called Count Basie's. Wes Montgomery was playing there. Martino was close to Les Paul then. He was a fatherly figure to Martino. Martino took Les Paul to Harlem to see Montgomery during his break at his gig at Small's Paradise. During Montgomery's break, he came over to Martino and Les Paul and introduced himself. He said his 2 biggest influence was Charlie Christian, and guess who else? None other than Les Paul! Les Paul stayed there the whole night and Martino got back to his gig. When he was done and back to Count Basie's, 5 guitarists were hanging out outside the club. Who are the other 2? George Benson and Grant Green!

Star of the day: Armando Galarraga

Let's all urge MLB to do the right thing and credit Armando Galarraga with the perfect game that he deserved. Detroit Tigers' Armando Galarraga pitched a perfect game against Cleveland Indian into the 9th inning with 2 outs. The 3rd one should have been an out too but the umpire screwed up the call (even he admitted it!)

I root for Galarraga especially because he was on my championship winning team in the fantasy league a few years ago (I picked him up as a free agent!) BTW, he is really a class act. He didn't even go into any heated argument with the umpire.

Sports highlights: UFC, F1 and mostly racing

It was Super 14's final last Sat. I couldn't watch the 2nd half but I guess I didn't miss much. The Bulls was leading at half time and went on to beat the Stormers and successfully defended their title. There won't be Super 14 next year as the league has expanded to 15.

The Rampage-Evans fight turned out to be not bad. Rampage looked passive in the beginning but he showed a bit of his old explosiveness at round 3. Evans did a great job trying to dominate.

The weekend was mainly about auto racing though: I watched both NASCAR races, Indy 500 and F1. I can't remember when was the last time the F1 race was actually more dramatic among all of them! I mean, the dominating driver in the beginning didn't win! The TV commentators mostly agreed that Vettel ruined teammate Webber's day but it wasn't so clear cut according to post-race analysis. After that crash, there was another close battle between teammates, Hamiton and Button. And that was just spectacular: Button passed the race leader Hamilton and the latter was able to regain his lead and went on to win. Another great finish I watched was the GT class of American Le Man Series at Laguna Seca Raceway at Monterrey. The Porsche passed the Bimmer at the final restart. These cars are more stock than those race for National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (yeah, that's NASCAR) and they didn't need double file restart to have exciting passes during restart! It deserved to be more popular than it currently does. The coverage was not typical (wasn't even live). Instead, it's more like a documentary, which served as a great introduction to uneducated fans like me. As predicted, hardcore fans didn't like it but I agree with the posters here that it would have got even fewer audiences if the full 6 hour race was broadcasted. Kudo to CBS for showing it.

Congrat to Danica Patrick for her 6th place finish at Indy 500. It was much better than expected!

Star of the day: Barry Alvarez, newly elected college hall of famer

In my book, he is the best football coach ever (on a 2nd thought, maybe tied with Mack Brown and Jimmy Johnson :P) Congrat to him for being elected to the hall of fame! It is an amazing feat for him to turn around the Wisconsin football program that had been losing for a long time into a three-time Rose Bowl winner in a decade.

Music of the day: Purpose Built

This is an album by jazz bassist/band leader Michael Janisch. This album reminds me of Dave Holland's recent works. I believe that is a big compliment. Here is the line-up:
Michael Janisch: acoustic bass (1, 3-7, 9-11), electric bass (2, 8, 12); Aaron Goldberg: piano (2, 3, 9, 10); Jim Hart: vibraphone (1, 4, 6, 11); Jason Palmer: trumpet (2, 7, 8, 11); Paul Booth: tenor saxophone (1, 2, 6); Mike Moreno: guitar (2, 8); Patrick Cornelius: alto saxophone (5, 11); Phil Robson: guitar (5, 9); Walter Smith III: tenor saxophone (1, 8, 11); Johnathan Blake: drums.

And to be honest with you, I have not heard of any of them before but they all played impressively on this album.

Tech of the day: My非佛

鑑於富士康近月接連發生多名員工跳樓事件，本人建議各位iPhone用家下載「非一般唸佛機」App，南無阿彌陀佛。