Barack Obama: Regular Guy All His Life

 

This is much longer than I intended, but I had to put the different pieces together to give a little different picture of who Barack Obama is.  He isn’t the elitist that some wants us to believe he is, how could he be? 

He might have a sense of pride about him (and he should!) but he isn’t arrogant or pompous.  His journey started a long time ago and it has been a long excursion in his short 46 years.

This story begins with Jane Dystel of Dystel & Goderich “D&G”.  D&G represents a huge variety of clients from No. 1 bestseller nonfiction authors like: Joy Bauer (Joy Bauer’s Food Cures) and Robin L Smith (Lies at the Altar) to best selling fiction authors like Jacqueline Carey and Anne Stuart.

Dystel & Goderich believe in the slush pile and read every submission that is sent to them, even if they chose not to represent that author. They are committed to finding the best talent and giving the authors the best representation. 

Jane did an interview with Jayne of ‘Dear Author’ about a year ago that I found interesting, particularly because Jane is the person who ‘found’ Barack Obama and his literary voice.  Here is a ‘little’ background about Jane from her own mouth and then a little bit about how she came to meet Barack Obama 18 years ago.

Senators Clinton and Obama Will Unite In Unity, NH

  Obama is whispering to Hillary, “Let us kick some republican azz!” And do you see her smiling?  She agrees with him!

How poetic is this?  According to the Obama campaign, Senators Clinton and Obama will travel to Unity, New Hampshire — a small town on the state’s western border where both candidates received exactly 107 votes in the January primary.

The joint rally is the first time the two candidates will appear together in public since Obama clinched the nomination. By embracing Obama, Clinton is signaling to her backers that she is with him and supports him and so should they.

It is also a way to stave off media speculation about tension between the two camps, fed for instance by Obama’s recent hiring of an exiled former Clinton aide to assist his eventual vice-presidential pick.

“She is deeply committed to the task of helping him bring her people back in,” said Matt Bennett, a veteran Democratic strategist and co-founder of Third Way, a moderate Democratic organization. “She thinks all this talk about Clinton ‘refuseniks’ is idiotic and she understands the difference between McCain and Obama is massive.”

Is this symbolism or what?

Paulette

 

Olympic Basketball: Dream Team 2? Kobe, LeBron, D. Wade, Paul

 

MVP Kobe Bryant will be heading to his first Olympics, and he’ll have LeBron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Paul with him.  But where is Paul Pierce?

They will lead a U.S. Olympic basketball team that was announced today — one that hopes to capture the gold medal in Beijing in August after a third-place showing in Athens four years ago. They’ll have plenty of help.

Carmelo Anthony and Jason Kidd were among the 12 players placed on the squad. They were joined by Tayshaun Prince, Carlos Boozer, Chris Bosh, Dwight Howard, Michael Redd and Deron Williams.

“It was a very difficult selection process,” said Jerry Colangelo, USA Basketball managing director. “When you have as many outstanding players as we do — to select a group of 12 is going to leave out some outstanding people.”

The team was selected without a tryout. It will have a minicamp this week in Las Vegas and reconvene there July 20-25 to train and play an exhibition against Canada before heading overseas.

The Americans open Olympic play against China on Aug. 10.

Although the Americans captured the gold at the Sydney Games in 2000, they no longer dominate international play as they once did. The talent gap has narrowed and many top NBA players have chosen to not play for the national team in recent years.

Now, the U.S. will field a team that appears loaded. Then again, the Americans went 5-3 in Athens and lost for the first time since NBA players started competing in 1992, even though they had James, Anthony, Wade and Tim Duncan. That group got routed by Puerto Rico before losing to Lithuania and Argentina, but this one is confident it will take the gold.

“It’s really the world’s game,” Coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “We think we’re the best at playing that game.”

Bryant just won his first MVP and led the Los Angeles Lakers to the NBA Finals. James averaged 30.0 points — just enough to beat Bryant for the scoring title.

Those two, along with Anthony, Kidd and Dwight Howard, started for a team that went unbeaten in the Olympic qualifying tournament last year.

Phoenix forward Amare Stoudemire withdrew from Olympic consideration apparently concerned about pushing his body too hard after knee surgery in 2005 and 2006. So did Detroit’s Chauncey Billups, who would have had a tough time making the team, given the depth in the backcourt.

Wade cemented his spot after Colangelo watched him work out in Chicago recently. Wade has had chronic soreness in his left knee since undergoing surgery in 2007, and his season ended in March.

Wade started working out in Chicago in May, and James and Paul joined him to help sharpen his game. Colangelo paid a visit and left convinced the 6-foot-4 guard was healthy.

But where is Pierce?

Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press

 

 

 

 

 

The National Jazz Museum in Harlem

 

The title of this post is misleading; indeed, the name of the museum itself is misleading. Because as of yet, there is literally no such monument to be found, physically, in New York City. Sadly, in spite of its rich jazz history, New York City does not have a jazz museum. Even with the present dismal state of the NEA this is a really egregious set of circumstances. NYC and jazz are in some minds almost synonymous. Dating back to the Harlem Renaissance, informal jazz monuments abound – the Cotton Club, The Blue Note, Lennox Lounge, Birdland, and the Village Gate are just some of the iconic houses of jazz that have come to represent the smoky, bluesy tones of New York City’s rich music history. So the absence of an official home to celebrate, perpetuate and commemorate the city’s jazz was, to say the least, surprising.

Happily, that’s about to change. After a prolonged search, the National Jazz Museum in Harlem is now scheduled to be housed in the soon to be renovated and refurbished Victory Theater in upper Manhattan. Explains founder, Leonard Garment,

In 1996, Art D’Lugoff, then proprietor of the Village Gate, the historic Greenwich Village jazz club, suggested the idea of a jazz museum to his friend David Levy, who is director of the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, a sometime saxophonist and a lifelong jazz enthusiast. The two of them enlisted me. Before entering the practice of law, I had spent some time as a jazz musician; my performing career was brief, but my love of jazz proved permanent. Daryl Libow, a Washington lawyer and amateur jazz historian, joined us. We had lots of enthusiasm and no funding. We soon discovered the limitations of the former and the importance of the latter.