Last season for the R-Braves?

Who to blame for the sad news that the ownership of the Richmond Braves has called the moving vans will be much discussed in the weeks ahead. No doubt, Mayor Doug Wilder will be under some scrutiny. But don’t jump on the Blame Doug bandwagon too fast, there were other players who contributed to where we find ourselves today, and they should be given their due, as well.

The R-Braves played their first home games on at Parker Field in 1966. It appears now that 2008 will be their last season at The Diamond; maybe it will shake out some other way.

The telling paragraph below is part of a brief story on the Atlanta Braves web site, “Braves looking to move Triple-A team.”

"While the Braves have a long history with Richmond that dates back to 1966, they too [sic] have had many recent problems with the city's reluctance to provide upgrades to the stadium that is known as The Diamond."

Click here to read the whole piece. More news is expected on this story later today.

If the upcoming season is played here that will make it 43 years, through at least three ownership changes, depending on how you want to define terms. That’s a long time for a minor league franchise, blame or no blame.

Jan. 14: VA Top Five

Each Monday SLANTblog’s Virginia Top Five for men’s college basketball is published. It attempts to rank what seems on that day to be the best five teams from among the 14 Division I programs in the Commonwealth.

SLANTblog's VA Top Five

1. George Mason (11-5, 3-2 in CAA)
2. VCU (11-4, 4-1 in CAA)
3. Virginia (10-4, 0-1 in ACC)
4. Va. Tech (10-6, 1-1 in ACC)
5. JMU (10-5, 3-2 in CAA)

VCU stifles Hofstra

As with the game VCU played on Thursday night, a win against Georgia State, the Rams struggled on offense today. VCU won again, because once again, it made the visitors struggle even more: VCU 59, Hofstra 49.

This afternoon Hofstra, a team that very much needs to score points from outside, went 0-for-11 on its three-point attempts.

VCU senior guard Jamal Shuler (pictured above) said, “I wasn’t focused on offense at all, because I had a big task.”

Shuler’s “task” was to shadow Hofstra’s high-scoring guard Antoine Agudio, who came to the Siegel Center ranked fourth in the nation in scoring (26.2 points per game). Shuler and his Rams teammates’ smothering defense made Agudio work hard in scoring his 14 points for the game. Most of his shots were forced.

The crowd of 5,121, including Gov. Tim Kaine, saw a contest in which neither team ever put together anything resembling a run. Except for the first five minutes and change, the Rams led all the way. VCU’s junior point guard, Eric Maynor, led all scorers with 18 points.

However, VCU’s head coach, Anthony Grant, can’t be happy with the way Maynor has played in the last two home games. On Thursday he was not particularly aggressive, almost nonchalant at times. In today’s contest Maynor made several ill-advised passes.

Without the effort of Shuler (10 points and eight rebounds), Joey Rodriguez (five points, four rebounds and three assists) and Wil Fameni (10 points and four rebounds), Maynor could have been the goat of this CAA tilt. Of course, the good news about this slump by VCU’s star player, the preseason pick to be the CAA’s Player of the Year, is that the Rams are learning that they can win when he’s not playing at his best.

Grant said, “I’m proud of the way our guys defended ... we struggled offensively.”

On Wed., Jan. 16, VCU (11-4, 4-1 in CAA), now in second place in the CAA standings, will host the team perched at the top, Delaware (8-7, 5-0 in CAA), at 7:30 p.m.

-- Photo by F.T. Rea

God Creates Sidemen

1. "And so the great Leader Nebulon did embark upon a search for suitable Sidemen for his orchestra, and he could find none; for in those days there were not many, and those he could find were already working.

2. Some worked the Ark with the House of Noah, and some had the house gig at The Walls of Jericho. And many played behind the scat-singing team of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednago.

3. So Nebulon did return to the Lord and saith, "Lord, there are many musicians, but no Sidemen!", and he rent his clothing asunder.

4. And the Lord did say, "Hast thou looked everywhere? Didst thou call the Union?"

5. And Nebulon did say, "Lord, I have looked high and low, especially low; and only one or two could I find. What shall I do?"

6. And the Lord did afflict Nebulon with boils, saying unto him, "Leave Me to think on this!"

7. And just to buy some time he did also visit a plague of locusts upon Egypt.

8. And the Lord did summon a league of Angels, and sent them forth over the land, commanding them to find Him some Sidemen.

9. And the Angels did go to the four corners of the earth, but the only unemployed Sideman they could find was one holy man in India who did play the horn with the slide.

10. So with great fear the Angels did return to the Lord with the bad news, and filled with wrath He said, "How can this be? At one time the world did teem with Sidemen, as dead oxen do with maggots!"

11. And the Angels did say, "Lord, many left the business, many have become idiots, and some have even become Leaders, and no Leader will work for another Leader."

12. So the Lord did cause drought for 40 days while He thought, and at last the answer came unto Him. He did recall that there was a factory, part of his Beasts Of The Field, Inc. division, that was in disuse.

13. For it had earlier been used to create Golems, for which there had been no great demand, and so He had closed down the operation. And He thought, 'We can retool, and start turning out Sidemen.'

14. And so it was done, and it came to pass that the Sidemen started rolling off the assembly line.

15. But somehow a remnant of the Golem program remained, and the Sidemen did come out acting unpredictably.

16. Some stammered and stuttered, some talked to themselves under their breath, and some would not bathe.

17. Some refused to shave their beards or to have their hair shorn, and some refused to wear the Gigging Toga.

18. And some wore the Toga, but left them crumpled in their chariots in between Gigs, or slept in them, or wore Togas from eons past, with ruffles.

19. And some did not believe in maps, and wandered the land aimlessly looking for the Gig, and some did not believe in the use of the hourglass, and arrived at the Gig whenever they chose.

20. And some loved the wine of dates, and some loved the burning of hemp.

21. And some were created without ears, and some with knuckles where their eyebrows should be.

22. And some did worship the gods Mahavishnu, Sun Ra, Trane, Jaco, Ornette, Cecile, and did therefore mock their Leaders at will.

23. And some did steal food from the buffet line, yea, even before the Guests had dined.

24. And some did try to lay with the Chick Singers, and some with the Guests, and some with the Little Sisters of these, the Chick Singers and the Guests.

25. And some did not Read, and some could only Read, but not Blow. And some could only Read one clef and not another. And some could only Blow in certain keys. And some did Blow the same notes no matter what the "Tune."

26. And some had no social skills, and some had no musical skills. And many of them were Dark, not in pigmentation of the skin, but in the Outlook on Life.

27. But every once in a while the line did miraculously produce a Perfect Sideman: One who followed orders without question; One who believed in the hourglass; One who wore the Toga; One whose chariot always ran; One who Knew all "Tunes" in any key.

28. But these Perfect Sidemen were few and far between, and besides their eyes were glazed, and they were shunned by the rest, for they were boring and knew not how to hang.

29. And soon the land teemed with Sidemen milling about, looking for Gigs, complaining and whining and arguing and occasionally stabbing each other in the back.

30. And the Lord looked down upon his work, and said, "It will do."

-- These words came to us from Gregg Wetzel, piano and vocals

Hail to Joe Gibbs

According to the Associated Press Joe Gibbs will not return next season to coach the Washington Redskins.

After the toughest season of his Hall of Fame career, one that tested his leadership like never before, Joe Gibbs is stepping down. He resigned as coach and team president of the Washington Redskins on Tuesday, three days after a playoff loss ended an inspirational late-season run that followed the death of safety Sean Taylor. Gibbs will remain as a special adviser to owner Dan Snyder and was to discuss his resignation at an afternoon news conference at Redskins Park.

Click here to read the entire article.

The Redskins have been my favorite pro football team since I was a little kid, watching their games on a black and white Zenith with my grandfather. By far, Gibbs has been my favorite Redskins head coach during all that time. After all that happened this season the job he did to get Washington into the playoffs was vintage Gibbs, it proved he's still a great leader.

Yet, I'm not surprised he is stepping down. Since the Buffalo game the Redskins lost, in part due to a mistake Gibbs made on the sideline -- he called an illegal timeout -- I have thought he would probably not be back. His standards are too high for him to permit himself that kind of a mistake. And, no doubt this season, in which the Redskins had to endure the ordeal of burying a teammate, took a lot out of the 67-year-old Gibbs.

Hopefully, the impression Gibbs made on those Redskins who will return to play for the new head coach next season will stay with them. Some of those guys probably won't fully appreciate what Gibbs was all about, an honest/sincere man in the pro football world of back-stabbers, until they look back on their time under his guidance.

All I can say at this point is thank you Joe Gibbs and, of course, hail to the Redskins!

The Slant: Clinton’s strut out of style?

It’s less than a week into 2008 and already the so-called “inevitability” of Hillary Clinton’s nomination sounds so-o 2007. The Iowa caucuses popped that leftover bubble.

Once the Iowa votes were counted the national press promptly reduced the numbers down to a one-word common denominator for what voters in both political parties were calling for -- “change.”

Perhaps that’s a bit oversimplified but a one-word theme, which plays well as a headline, is as good as it gets for copywriters in the news biz.

Cast as insurgents, Democrat Barack Obama and Republican Mike Huckabee emerged from Iowa labeled as “agents for change,” as winners. For the also-rans in both parties that change theme might have a different meaning, as a verb rather than a noun -- either change your campaign’s style, or step aside, because this year there’s a new way of walking.

For Democrat Hillary Clinton that won’t be so easy. She’s been selling her “experience” as a U.S. Senator, piggybacked onto her First Lady years, as her strong suit. Now she’s hearing from the chattering pundits that a lot of voters, especially young voters, see her as representing a fading bygone era more than a brighter future.

If that 35 years of experience Clinton has been touting is actually looking more like “baggage” to restless Democrats, tired of faces all-too-familiar, she may have painted herself into a corner.

Can’t you hear that familiar tune in the background? Yes, it’s that old jazz standard, “There’ll Be Some Changes Made” (by Overstreet and Higgins).

I’m goin’ to change my way of livin’
If that ain’t enough
Then I’ll change the way that I strut my stuff

At Saturday night’s debate, in a revealing moment, Clinton cut her eyes toward Obama to say, “I’m not running on just a promise of change, I’m running on 35 years of making...”

How did “change” become the first big buzzword of Campaign ‘08?

Well, one has to go back to 1952 to find the last presidential election year in which there wasn’t an incumbent president or vice president in the hunt. Then there’s the fact the shadow being cast across the political landscape by the baby boomer generation is at long-last shortening.

Voters under 35 apparently aren’t so interested in re-fighting the battles of the ’60s forever.

Perhaps more important than either of those reasons is the fatigue factor that’s clearly in the air. Coast-to-coast, millions of Democrats, Republicans, Independents and you-name-it are obviously more than a little tired of a bitterly partisan, consultant-driven style of politics that can’t deliver solutions. Likewise, voters are fed up with a lobbyist-driven government that routinely shovels their tax money into bottomless pits of folly and graft.

In 2008 the horses of fear-mongering and empty cynicism may well have been beaten to death.

However, as Obama is subjected to more scrutiny and attack ads, which he surely will be, it will become increasingly difficult for him to stay on message. Modern thinking has it that such attacks must be answered/refuted. If he follows that conventional wisdom, he could easily end up sounding more ordinary, which could reveal weaknesses not yet apparent.

Which means that while Obama’s momentum seems authentic -- his victory speech in Iowa has drawn universal raves -- there’s no reason to say this early in the going that if he wins in New Hampshire, it’s all over for Clinton. Not at all. Her considerable skills and resources won’t have evaporated into the mists of history, merely on account of losing a handful of delegates in two small states.

In short, Hillary Clinton has to figure out a new way to strut her stuff without looking like just another copycat politician, dancing yesterday’s steps. Maybe she can still do that ... then again, maybe she can’t.

Most likely, all that’s really been settled at this point is that we know “inevitability” is last year’s buzzword.

-- 30 --

Note: This same piece is also available at RVANews.

Jan. 7: VA Top Five

For each Monday SLANTblog’s Virginia Top Five for men’s college basketball is published. It attempts to rank what seems on that day to be the best five teams from among the 14 Division I programs in the Commonwealth.

In this Monday's edition there’s one new team, the University of Richmond. The Spiders won their third game in a row by defeating Virginia Tech, which dropped the Hokies from the list. Virginia fell one notch because the ‘Hoos lost at Xavier by 38 points. VCU and JMU both went 1-1 for the week and moved up one position from where they stood last week.

SLANTblog's VA Top Five

1. George Mason (10-4, 2-1 in CAA)
2. VCU (9-4, 2-1 in CAA)
3. Virginia (10-3, 0-0 in ACC)
4. JMU (9-4, 2-1 in CAA)
5. Richmond (7-6, 0-0 in A-10)

Rich on Obama and Huckabee

Between writing popular books, former Richmond Mercury (1972-73) columnist, Frank Rich, writes opinion pieces for the New York Times. His political observations and analysis are just as sharp and original as they have been on show business for decades. By the way, Rich could wear either hat back in his Mercury days, too.

Rich’s take on this very moment of Campaign 2008, between Iowa and New Hampshire, is a must-read piece of work. An excerpt of "They Didn’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow" is below:

After so many years of fear and loathing, we had almost forgotten what it’s like to feel good about our country. On Thursday night, that long-dormant emotion came rushing back, like an old dream that pops out of the deepest recesses of memory, suddenly as clear as light. “They said this day would never come,” said Barack Obama, and yet here, right before us, was indisputable evidence that it had.

What felt good was not merely the improbable and historic political triumph of an African-American candidate carrying a state with a black population of under 3 percent. It was the palpable sense that our history was turning a page whether or not Mr. Obama or his doppelgänger in improbability, Mike Huckabee, end up in the White House. We could allow ourselves a big what-if: What if we could have an election that was not a referendum on either the Clinton or Bush presidencies?

Click here to read the entire piece.

Clinton's 'inevitability' is kaput

The so-called "inevitability" of Hillary Clinton's nomination is now a thing of the past. Was it ever real?

The momentum Barack Obama is riding by virtue of his clearcut win in Iowa, and the speech he gave afterward, looks genuine and strong.

The news out of Iowa is that "change" is what the people want. Even the Republicans in Iowa seem to have said the same thing by handing Mike Huckabee the victory.

It won't be easy for Clinton to make herself over into what might appear as an agent of change in the next month. Her campaign is in trouble because she's been selling her "experience" as more important than change. Now all that experience she's been touting could prove to be her undoing, because the voters may see it as baggage.

SLANTblog's Rate-the-Candidates Scale

Now that 2008 has gotten underway, how do you rate the field of presidential candidates?

Many readers have already decided which Democrat or Republican they like best, and which ones they’d be absolutely unwilling to accept. Others are still mulling. In Iowa tomorrow night the first votes of confidence that actually matter will happen in that state’s caucuses. How much do those votes matter?

Well, I just heard Judy Woodruff say on PBS that she estimates, when all is said and done in Iowa, the candidates will have spent something like $400-per-vote. Putting aside considerations of how they might look later in the general election, if you were casting a vote in Iowa, what would you do to pick between two, or three candidates that all seem pretty good, but not perfect?

SLANTblog wants to help. Using the five categories below and a one-to-ten scale, rate the candidates. Then add up their totals.

The SLANTblog Rate-the-Candidates Scale’s categories are:

A. Fitness -- quality of political experience and life story
B. Speaking/Leadership -- ability to deliver speeches, field questions and inspire others
C. Grasp of Domestic Issues and Proposed Programs
D. Grasp of International Politics and Proposed Policies
E. Integrity/Credibility

For example, using this method, here’s how former president Bill Clinton might stack up:

A. 5 points
B. 7 points
C. 6 points
D. 5 points
E. 2 points
Total: 25 points

Whether you agree with my example isn’t important. Bill Clinton isn’t running this time. Well, not exactly.

The thing to do is rate the candidates who are running, then see if this method helps you separate one from another. Of course, if you’re just going to say the candidate you already prefer gets a solid 50-point rating, and all the rest of them get five points, then don’t waste your time. This only works if you're willing to try to be more honest than Bill Clinton or Richard Nixon.

In your opinion, at the threshold of the primary season -- at this moment -- does Hillary Clinton rate higher than Barack Obama, or John Edwards? Using what you know today, how about Mike Huckabee vs. Mitt Romney? Ron Paul against Rudy Giuliani?

Georgia St. upsets Mason

In college basketball the second phase of the 2007/08 season begins this week, as conferences schedules get underway with the new year. For the next two months nearly all the contests will be between conference foes that know each other well, which means upsets will occur.

The first big upset of the season in Colonial Athletic Association play took place this afternoon in Atlanta.

Leonard Mendez made a game-winner jumper as time expired, capping Georgia State's second-half rally to beat George Mason 66-64 on Wednesday...

Who saw that one coming? Click here to read the AP story.

The other 10 CAA teams are in all action tonight. Updates will be posted below as the scores come in:

• JMU 62, VCU 61
  
• Drexel 70, UNC-Wilmington 60
  
• Towson 77, Northeastern 71
  
• Delaware 58, Wm. & Mary 51
  
• ODU 75, Hofstra 54
  

Party for Page on Sunday

Following a year that dealt him some bad luck, singer/songwriter Page Wilson, the longtime host of Saturday night’s always tasty musical stew on WCVE-FM -- The Out O’ the Blue Radio Revue -- needs a little help from his friends and fans.

Consequently, on Sun., Jan. 6, "A Party for Page" will happen at the Canal Club (1545 E. Cary St.). The doors open at 2 p.m., the live music, raffles and whatnot will go on until about 10:30 p.m. This special show to benefit Page, who has given of his own time for countless causes over his 30-some years in show business, will gather and present 10 acts for a mere $20. Call (804) 643-2582 for info.

The list of performers/bands that will appear on stage at during the show includes (not necessarily in this order):

Reckless Abandon
Jackass Flats
Susan Greenbaum
L'il Ronnie & the Grand Dukes
Gaye Adegbalola & Roddy Barnes
Terry Garland with Bruce Courson & Mark Wenner
Janet Martin Band
Charles Arthur Trio
Billy Ray Hatley & the Showdogs
Bruce Olsen & The Offenders

-- Photo of Page Wilson from Canal Club web site.

2008: There'll Be Some Changes Made

My walk will be different,
my talk and my name
Nothin’ about me is going to be the same
I’m goin’ to change my way of livin’
If that ain’t enough
Then I’ll change the way that I strut my stuff

-- Overstreet and Higgins

Looking at the soon-to-be-launched presidential primaries season, the news out of Iowa and New Hampshire is that the races are close. And, why not? One has to go back to 1952 to find the last presidential election in which there wasn’t an incumbent president or vice president in the hunt.

Sen. John Warner’s (depicted left) decision to retire at the end of his 30th year in the U.S. Senate (1979-2009) opened the door for change in the Old Dominion, too. Over the Labor Day weekend that followed his announcement, strategies and promises for money bags began falling into place.

It didn’t take long for two likely senatorial candidates to emerge from the two-party system. Former Virginia governor Mark Warner announced he was in the game within a week, he seems to have no competition for the Democratic nod. Then came Richmond’s own Jim Gilmore, another former governor of Virginia, who appears to have shouldered aside any serious challengers to become the GOP’s candidate. My apologies to all less-than-serious candidates who might be offended.

The best song to use in production as a bed under the commentary of news reports, to underline the theme of 2008's politics, has to be, "There'll Be Some Changes Made." The song lyrics above are from that particular old jazz standard by W. Benton Overstreet and Billy Higgins. Versions of it have been recorded by Ethel Waters, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Billie Holliday and scores of others, including my old pal Duck Baker.

Presently, Democrats are having little trouble unifying behind Mark Warner, who left the Governor’s Mansion two years ago with soaring approval ratings. His predecessor, Jim Gilmore, finished his term as governor under more difficult circumstances. Warner still enjoys good numbers in opinion polls, Gilmore's remain less than flattering. Both men flirted with running for president, early in the going, then dropped out if the field. It’s hard to say whether either of them changed their standing with Virginia voters, due to those aborted campaigns.

The Virginia Republican Party has lost two consecutive gubernatorial races. More recently, George Allen -- a supposedly invincible incumbent -- lost his seat in the Senate to newly-minted Democrat Jim Webb, who once worked in Ronald Reagan’s administration.

Arguing over the blame for those losses, especially Allen’s stumble, has put some Republicans at odds with others. Gilmore is an unrepentant tax-cutter who appeals more to conservative Republicans than he does to moderates. Now the tough-talking Gilmore needs to reinvent himself as a charismatic leader and a peacemaker, in order to unify the party; finger-pointing and purity issues have fractured the Virginia GOP along what have become persistent ideological fault lines.

Still, with November a long way off, at this point Jim Gilmore is probably not as much of a long-shot as Jim Webb was at the onset of his campaign. Moreover, in politics the unexpected is always more than just possible.

The most likely result of the caucuses in Iowa (Jan. 3) and the New Hampshire primary (Jan. 8) is that the viability of the weakest of the second-tier candidacies in both parties will evaporate in the bright lights. After those initial contests, tradition has it that most of the heavy campaign contributions will flow toward candidates who finished well.

By the third week of January the field may have been cut in half, only the strong -- money-wise -- could be left standing.

Thirty other states will have already voted their preferences by the time of Virginia’s primary on Feb. 12. Running campaigns in all those states simultaneously takes a lot of dough, so those with the most cash on hand have a huge advantage.

Thus, the primary system favors well-connected, establishment candidates in a way that comes with a dose of irony. Before the ’70s few states saw fit to hold primaries; after all, they cost a lot of money.

Instead, in most states conventions of party regulars were held to determine who among them would be delegates to their party’s national convention. Then the chosen delegates went to that convention where all the votes on the floor were not necessarily predetermined. Those less orchestrated conventions were alive with potential for the unexpected to suddenly explode into the proceedings.

Hip political thinking of the ’70s asserted that primaries were more “inclusive” than the smoke-filled-rooms of the past. It wasn’t long before both parties bought into that brand of wisdom and most states fell in line. In the long run, the result of that supposedly well-intentioned change in the political process has proven to magnify the power of the deep-pocketed kingmakers who can bankroll a staff and buy TV ads.

The next few weeks will be a bumpy ride, as presidential campaigns fall dead in their tracks and ever more money bags drop into place to finance the changes on the way, even if some of those changes end up feeling an awful lot like the same ol’ same ol’.

-- 30 --

-- Art and words (except for music lyrics) by F.T. Rea

Dec. 31: VA Top Five

Each Monday, SLANTblog publishes what seems on that day to be the five best men's basketball teams from among the 14 Division I programs in the Commonwealth, ranked from one-to-five.

In this Monday's edition of the Top Five the only movement was Virginia and VCU switching places. No new teams entered the list. The Cavs won their only game (UVa. 78, Hartford 70) and VCU didn't play.

SLANTblog's VA Top Five

1. George Mason (9-3, 1-0 in CAA)
2. Virginia (10-2, 0-0 in ACC)
3. VCU (8-3, 1-0 in CAA)
4. Va. Tech (8-5, 0-1 in ACC)
5. JMU (8-3, 1-0 in CAA)

Top 5 in local sports

What were the five most significant local sports stories of 2007?

Well, I took on the assignment of answering that question at Richmond.com.

For a long time it will be remembered that 2007 was the year Major League Baseball endured the rather joyless pursuit of its most cherished record -- the all-time home runs mark -- by outfielder Barry Bonds, a seven-time Most Valuable Player now facing federal charges related to steroids.

Meanwhile, as another sign of the times, Florida State has excluded as many as 36 football players from the squad it is taking to the Music City Bowl on Dec. 31. Apparently, most of them were part of a still unfolding cheating scandal.

While the national media's talking heads have been busy dishing national dirt this past year, in between the scores and highlights, at Richmond.com the focus has naturally been on events closer to home. And, we're happy to say that of our five picks, presented in chronological order, four are stories of a positive nature.

Click here to read the entire piece. But to make it more fun, try to see how many of the five you can guess before you click.

Five Favorite Anti-Hero Films

Following the brutal realities associated with World War II, American movies changed because the audience had changed. After the steady dose of feel-good, even propagandistic movies Hollywood churned out during the war, a new breed of filmmakers sought to portray a grittier, more worldly view in the stories they told.

Thus, altruistic heroes and thoroughly wicked heavies began to seem corny. Absolutes were shoved aside. Shades of gray and anti-heroes were in style during the third quarter of the 20th century. Many of the most popular filmmakers and actors of that period specialized in making anti-hero features.

My five favorite films that feature anti-heroes as protagonists are as follows (in alphabetical order).

“Chinatown” (1974): Directed by Roman Polanski; Cast: Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston

“The Hustler” (1961): Directed by Robert Rossen; Cast: Paul Newman, Jackie Gleason, Piper Laurie

“Lonely Are the Brave” (1962): Directed by David Miller; Cast: Kirk Douglas, Gena Rowlands, Walter Matthau

“On the Waterfront” (1954): Directed by Elia Kazan; Cast: Marlon Brando, Lee J. Cobb, Eva Marie Saint

“Treasure of the Sierra Madre” (1948): Directed by John Huston; Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Walter Huston, Tim Holt

Dec 24: VA Top Five

Each Monday, SLANTblog publishes what seems on that day to be the five best men's basketball teams from among the 14 Division I programs in the Commonwealth, ranked from one-to-five. This week ODU and Hampton dropped out, to be replaced by Va. Tech and James Madison.

Can two of the CAA's teams in the state really be better than Virginia's two ACC teams?

It says here -- right now they are.

SLANTblog's VA Top Five

1. George Mason (8-3)
2. VCU (8-3)
3. Virginia (9-2)
4. Va. Tech (6-5)
5. JMU (7-2)

Buy local ... give 'em off-the-wall stuff

The Texas-Wisconsin Cafe, Robert E. Lee, Rush Limbaugh, the Biograph, Doug Wilder, and a shapely derriere. Hmm ... what could they have in common?

The answer in this case is that they are names/words that create pictures. Read on.

Stumped over what to buy that certain someone for a gift? Or, maybe you're wondering what to buy for your own damn self, but can't do the mall?

Perhaps the answer for you is to buy some off-beat local art from a guy who needs the dough.

Click here to visit Rea's Off-the-Wall Art. Looking is free. Maybe you'll see something you'd like to have/give. The prices are set at the starving artist level that makes buying easier. 'Tis the season. Call (804) 359-4864, or email ftrea9@yahoo.com.

And, try visiting Rea's Off-the-Wall Art, again, as more stuff will be added soon.

Peace.