Amherst Bowl

Many neighborhoods have their version of a "Turkey bowl"...which finds old friends and guys from the block getting muddy and slopping around in a Thanksgiving day game of touch football. As guys get older, there are a few kids involved....then a few more. Eventually,the game becomes more about the kids. I refer to this stage of the tradition as the "ACL-tear Bowl" as injuries can visit the creaky pins of mid-40's wanna be Desean Jacksons as easily as a rookie chef can dry out a turkey....nothing like a trip to the E.R. on Thanksgiving because you pivoted too hard trying to deke a 6th grader.
My friend and professional colleague Steve Schain has elevated one of the local "Turkey Bowls" here on the Main Line to a status so laudable, that even the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote a long piece about the game in today's paper. An excerpt of same will be recorded below.
In the meantime, I applaud Steve for his effort and for what he has created. I have known Steve since Junior High and was very pleased to get re-aquainted with him over the last several years. He is a funny, intelligent,friendly guy and a damn fine father, Lawyer and philanthropist. He gives his time to his kid's teams and to the local little league and to his friends. Every neighborhood needs more guys like him.
Happy Thanksgiving to all.The following is an excerpt from the column about the Amherst bowl:



"The tradition begins with Steve Schain, so it's his story. He's a 47-year-old lawyer reliving childhood as a suburban Superdad. Only instead of a cape, he flies around Bala Cynwyd wearing an American flag bandanna on his bald head.

Nine years ago, the Amherst Bowl was just Steve calling buddies to drag their boys out for touch football on Thanksgiving morning. If they were lucky, the kids worked up an appetite and the men scored points with their wives.

"I was there the first year. It was just a few of us and it was very casual," recalls Michael O'Hare, a lawyer for mutual funds and father of Connor, 13, and Tim, 10.

Now, 127 players make up 12 teams playing five 20-minute games for neighborhood glory. They wear color-coded T-shirts and pay a $25 entry fee that lets them carb up on doughnuts and pretzels.

Schain matches the money left over after the costs are paid and donates it to children's charities. This year's list includes a foundation memorializing Charlie Schwab, a beloved Lower Merion dad who died recently.Intense competitors crave a gilded Amherst Bowl Cup, but Schain eschews such pageantry.

"If there was a brass ring," he surmises, "people wouldn't play for the fun of it."

"I want every kid to have one great play they talk about with their kids at Thanksgiving in 30 years," he adds. "I'm just trying to give every father and son a memory."

Question Time

Tom asked: I was wondering now that you’re out of prison, what are you going to try and become or do you think that it will lead to something bad again? What are some of your other ambitions you want to do now that you are out of jail?

My response: My ambitions are to keep telling my story to young people in the hope they don’t make the same mistakes I did, and to make people worldwide more aware of what is going on in Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s jail via my blog and book. Mike Stauffer, the man running against Sheriff Joe, has read my book and is disgusted by the conditions. He told me on webcam that if he gets elected, he will make positive changes in the jail. Like I mentioned in the talk at your school, I still hear the wolves howling for me to come out and party, but I channel my energy into positive activity now such as karate, yoga, BodyCombat… so I don’t see my life becoming bad again. 

Matthew asked: is what you said in the talk actually what happens in jail and the conditions, are they that bad?

Yes, they are. And that’s all I could fit in the one-hour talk. Click here for a website that tracks the deaths at Arpaio's jail.

Here's a video of an Aryan Brother murdering another inmate at Arpaio's jail: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSOKgLrlAeg&feature=related

Click here for the previous Question Time

Shaun Attwood

Paul Lewis’s Performance Suggests Cardiovascular Kinesthetics as Source of Inspiration for Features in Schubert’s Late Piano Music

T he excellent performance last night by pianist Paul Lewis at the Mozart-Saal in the Konzerthaus in Vienna provided some new insights about acoustic effects that are idiomatic of piano that may have interested Schubert late in his composing career.

T here are many passages in the Vier Impromptus (D 935, 1827), Fantasie (D 760, 1822), and Sechs Moments musicaux (D 780, 1823-28) that have emphases with the sustain pedal applied—the Sechs Moments more than the others. The impression we receive as the sound “blooms” or blossoms in the few hundreds of milliseconds after the chord’s strings have been struck and sympathetic resonances are established in other strings and in the soundboard amounts to a tactile/haptic sense of flow—of a “systolic” pushing of blood through large blood vessels, and of the blood vessels’ elasticity, acting as a “reservoir” with network-like capacitance to absorb the flow and to subsequently dissipate it in the rete of smaller vessels beyond.


I t requires a piano with an efficient, high-impedance soundboard with a high Q-factor (fast decay of high overtones). You can play around with these properties with the Pianoteq software if you like. The software enables you to alter or exaggerate the “bloom”—how quickly or slowly it develops after the hammer strikes the strings; how long it takes for it to ring-down and decay while the sustain pedal is depressed.

I n Lewis’s playing, we see the physical origins of the sound—besides the properties of the instrument itself, there are elements of his performance practice that contribute to his technique and the sound that it affords. For example, he places the piano bench very high—so that the top of the bench is almost even with the underside of the keyboard… Last night, it was only 2 cm lower than the surface of the flange that mounts the pedal mechanism to the underside of the Steinway Model “D”. The thighs slope downward, and this puts Lewis’s legs in an angle of slight extension—about 140° between the femur and the tibia shaft centerlines. His elbow is high as well—also in a position of slight extension.

L ewis’s pedaling technique involves, then, considerable so-called “concentric” contraction by the rectus femoris muscle of the right leg, in addition to the flexion of the ankle. The dynamics of Lewis’s right leg motions contributed substantially to the “blooming,” systolic sonic effects of the accent-sustains in these Schubert pieces.

W hy does this interest me? Because these pieces are introspective and quite emotional, and I want to think about how they came to be so. These pieces were created late in Schubert’s short life, after the consequences of his syphilis had begun to be apparent, and after his treatments with mercury compounds (one of the few modalities of “treatment” for syphilis in the 19th Century) had also begun to exert their neurotoxic side-effects.

W hile it is possible for those of us who are not musicians—who are not composers—to be oblivious to the rhythms of our bodies, to the rhythms of our life and of our mortality, it is pretty implausible that a composer, or any elite-level musician performer—would not notice. And, having noticed such things—especially abnormal things, changed or changing things, potentially life-threatening things—like the pulsatility of one’s heart that is altering day by day as it has to work harder; or palpitations of a chronic or sub-chronic abnormal heart rhythm; or the progressive dilatation of an abdominal aortic aneurysm; or the worsening of stenosis of the aortic valve in the heart, or worsening incompetence of the mitral valve—having noticed them, it is, I think, impossible for a composer not to attend to them. Impossible for those physical, kinesthetic effects not to creep into one’s music; impossible not to become a bit preoccupied or obsessed with such persistent sensory stimuli in one’s writing.

L ewis’s lucid, passionate, pulsatile playing of these late Schubert works last night—evocative as it was of preoccupations with systole, and pressure-wave run-off, and hemodynamics equations, and windkessel compliance, and vessel elastance and storage, and ventricular-arterial coupling, and how severe aortitis changes these things—caused me think of this. Life is short: compose like hell, while we can; play like hell, while we can.

• Paul Lewis website
  
• Schubert D. Sechs Moments musicaux. D 780 score at IMSLP
  
• Cruz R, et al. Chronic syphilitic aortic aneurysm complicated with chronic aortic dissection. Am J Surg. 2010;200:E64-6.
  
• Ghazy T, et al. A monstrous aneurysm of the descending aorta as a sole manifestation of tertiary syphilis. Eur Heart J 2011;32:2411.
  
• Goebl W, et al. Touch and temporal behavior of grand piano actions. J Acoust Soc Am 2005;118:1154-65.
  
• Hetenyi G. The terminal illness of Franz Schubert and the treatment of syphilis in Vienna in the eighteen hundred and twenties. Bull Can Hist Med. 1986;3:51-64.
  
• Huang H, et al. In vitro identification of four-element windkessel models based on iterated unscented Kalman filter. IEEE Tr Biomed Eng. 2011;58:2672-80.
  
• Miller D, Maleszewski J. The pathology of large-vessel vasculitides. Clin Exp Rheumatol 2011;29(1 Suppl 64):S92-8.
  
• Park H. The relationship between the acute changes of the systolic blood pressure and the brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity. Kor J Int Med 2007;22:147-51
  
• Roberts W, et al. Full blown cardiovascular syphilis with aneurysm of the innominate artery. Am J Cardiol. 2009;104:1595-600.
  
• Vaideeswar P. Syphilitic aortitis: Rearing of the ugly head. Ind J Pathol Microbiol. 2010;53:624-7.

Rivington and Blackrod High School‏ (Bolton) Visit

Today, I did four talks in Bolton, with almost 100 students in each group. The talks came about thanks to Shivani (pictured below) who bought Hard Time at a Manchester Trafford Centre book signing earlier this year. She liked the book so much she urged her teachers to have me tell my story there. Thanks, Shivani!  

 

Shaun Attwood

Sedbergh School Visit

Last night, I drove to Sedbergh School in Cumbria, 1 1/2 hours north of my parents' house, a boarding school founded in 1525 by Roger Lupton, the Provost of Eaton College, nestled into the Howgill Fells. The rain and mist increased as I squinted my way along ascending winding roads, making the final approach feel as if I were visiting a mountainous Transylvanian castle. Pictured are Brice and Poon, my two great readers.

Shaun Attwood

Weekend Report

The 147th Meeting of College Football's Most Played Rivalry was a tremendous day. The weather was crisp and clear, the Tailgate fare was delicious, the beer and drinks were liberally poured and my buddy Glenn and his son Gabe flew in from Calif. for the game. We had a great crew of Alumni from several classes and it was a blast having a few beers with the Lehigh crew and seeing all the wives and families. Perhaps the best part of the day was the sound ass-whooping the Lehigh boys put on the hapless Lafayette Leopards:37-14. This victory garnered Lehigh a bye in the FCS playoffs and we will now play Towson on December 3rd. This schedule has fomented a scramble for tickets and some hasty plans to get a crew together to go South and cheer for Lehigh...and since my daughter's school is right near Towson...an excuse to visit her and take her to the game...she has been at Lehigh v. Lafayette games since she was in diapers.....and indeed I shamefully admit I used to smuggle beers into the stadium in her snow suit back in the day...is that wrong?
After Sunday morning squash and brunch at Germantown Cricket, we dropped Glenn and Gabe at the Airport for the flight West.Then it was down to the duck hunting club for the Goose/Duck opener on Monday. We had an excellent dinner of Smoked ham, home made mac'n'cheese,greens and pickled beets,cornbread and lager as
we watched the Eagles beat that team from North Jersey....and things went downhill from there. There were few birds flying on Monday and it was a warm foggy day that featured misquitos in the blinds and a pitiful harvest of waterfowl. We are going back down to load up, put out the decoys and try again on Friday.....but because it has not been very cold up North, I fear the migratory birds have not really come down yet....so I do not expect too much. Nevertheless, it will be good to spend time with my son in the duck blind and goose pit....I only hope he does not clip me at the poker table like he did last January!

Káťa Kabanová’s Admission-against-Interest: Janáček’s Kabanicha as ‘Cyberbully’

T   he avant-garde lies surely in the fact that it does not presuppose the spontaneous social order to which Janáček constantly returns us; it is not addressed to a community but to the individual, who experiences through the music the alienation that reigns in his heart... This is a music which was not derived from the community portrayed in it: it was an attempt to create that community as a musical idea. And that, in part, is why it is so inpsiring... [we] hear in this music the working out of an ideal... an ideal of human community.”
  —  Roger Scruton, quoted in Whittall, p. 37.

O   per erzählt vom Untergang einer jungen Frau, die zum einen an ihrer außerehelichen Liebe und der daraus resultierenden Angst vor Höllenstrafe, zum anderen an der Kälte und Heuchelei der Gesellschaft zerbricht.

[Opera about the downfall of a young woman who under duress confesses her extra-marital love affair—her admission due partly to fear of eternal damnation in Hell, and due also to the alienating hypocrisy of family and society.”

  —  Wiener Staatsoper program notes.

T he Leoš Janáček opera Káťa Kabanová at the Wien Staatsoper is a beautiful, intimate production. Lots of great “chamber-ensemble-within-orchestra” playing: the textures and dramatic timbre changes and “sectional” orchestrations are so varied!

F or a work that was composed in 1919-21, this has a lot of "contemporary" qualities to it. I had not expected it would resemble ‘Intervention’ or other reality television.

T he lead part (Káťa Kabanová, sung by Janice Watson) was compellingly performed, with a most convincing devolution from admission of infidelity to suicidality.

• Janice Watson - Katja
  
• Klaus Florian Vogt - Boris
  
• Deborah Polaski - Kabanicha
  
• Marian Talaba - Tichon
  
• Wolfgang Bankl - Dikoj
  
• Gergely Németi - Kudrjas
  
• Stephanie Houtzeel - Varvara
  
• Marcus Pelz - Kuligin
  
• Alisa Kolosova - Glasa
  
• Donna Ellen - Feklusa
  
• N. N. - Eine Frau

T he intimidating, icy-cold Mother-in-Law-from-Hell (Kabanicha, sung by Deborah Polaski) reminded me of nothing so much as the situation several years ago in the real-life suicide of young Megan Meier subsequent to transgenerational cyberbullying by Mrs. Lori Drew. A tremendous amount of her aggression is projected “virtually,” by putting words in her son's mouth, making him say mean and manipulative things, or making it appear that her feelings and thoughts are really his.

L ike so many contemporary online behaviors, the Ostrovsky story on which this opera is based endorses the value of passion as a medium of truth and authentic identity. When that person—that identity—is persistently reproached, rejected, subordinated, and intimidated, a dark, deep depression sets in. Life seems unworth living. Katja feels lonely, helpless, convinced that nothing will ever change.

A nd Kabanicha the mother-in-law, like so many bullies, has profoundly low self-esteem and is even more unhappy than she makes her victims. She is evil, but more depressed and revealing of the meanness that can come from depression than simply evil per se.

T his is not pre-revolutionary Russian nor Soviet-era cynicism, nor even a criticism of the Church and its punitive tendencies in situations of marital infidelity. If anything, this is a straightforward indictment of dysfunctional family and community culture of 20th-Century modernity… evoked by the Art Deco metropolitan sets.

J anáček’s music is so inflected by the rhythm of the Czech language, whether performed in English or German or other languages. I try to keep up simultaneously, alternating between the English and German, on the small LCD text displays attached to the seatbacks in front of us.

I    think that in the music and in the text the opera does not try to explain itself but presents a situation which, on the surface, is very simple. The surface is what is primary. The mystery is already on the surface. In the text and music this is allowed to resonate. For me a work is like peeling an onion. You take a layer off, then another layer, then another and so forth, until you get almost nothing... All my work is choreographed, so I can do initial blocking and choreography with stand-ins and it is notated. This makes it much easier for me to teach the choreography to the singers. Western singers for the most part have no training in movement and dance. This way of working makes it easier for me to show the choreography to the singers.”   — Robert Wilson, Prague, 2002 production of Káťa Kabanová.

I n the ending after Katja has hurled herself into the river, we hear the mordent/turn theme played by a trumpet. The river is something like the chorus in a Greek tragedy. The opera ends with a majestic and dignified presentation on choir and orchestra thundering out—and then lights out to black. Wonderful symbolism. Beautiful production, set design, and lighting. Superb singing and acting, and gorgeous orchestra.

• Lyrica Society for Word-Music Relations website
  
• Leoš Janáček chamber opera page
  
• Chisolm E. Operas of Leoš Janáček. PhD Dissertation (Edinburgh), 1971, at MusicWebInternational
  
• Synopsis of Leoš Janáček's opera Káťa Kabanová [Metropolitan Opera website]
  
• Káťa Kabanová summary at LeošJanáček.com
  
• Megan Meier Foundation website
  
• National Suicide Prevention Lifeline [+1-800-273-8255]
  
• Deborah Polaski website
  
• Janice Watson page at Askonas-Holt Management
  
• BullyOnline.org
  
• Bonanno R, Hymel S. Beyond hurt feelings: Investigating why some victims of bullying are at greater risk for suicidal ideation. MP Quarterly 2010;56:420-40.
  
• Briggs A. 'Pre-revolutionary Russian theatre,' in Cornwell N, ed. Companion to Russian Literature. Routledge, 2001. (Ch. 6)
  
• Cheek T. Kat'a Kabanová: Translations and Pronunciation. Scarecrow, 2004.
  
• Clark R, et al. Cross-Examination Handbook: Persuasion Strategies & Techniques. Aspen, 2010.
  
• Due P, et al. Is bullying equally harmful for rich and poor children?: A study of bullying and depression from age 15 to 27. Eur J Public Health. 2009;19:464-9
  
• Friedman L. Cyberbullying. Greenhaven, 2010.
  
• Gardner T, Anderson T. Criminal Evidence: Principles and Cases. 7e. Wadsworth, 2009. (Ch. 8: admission-against-interest)
  
• High B. The what & how: Warning signs list for bullying, depression and suicide. BullyCide.org, 2007.
  
• Hinduja S, Patchin J. Bullying Beyond the Schoolyard: Preventing and Responding to Cyberbullying. Corwin, 2008.
  
• Inbau F, et al. Essentials of the Reid Technique: Criminal Interrogations and Confessions. Jones & Bartlett, 2004.
  
• Klomek A, et al. High school bullying as a risk for later depression and suicidality. Suicide Life Threat Behav 2011;41:501-16.
  
• Meltzer H, et al. Victims of bullying in childhood and suicide attempts in adulthood. Eur Psych 2011;26:498-503.
  
• Patchin J, Hinduja S. Cyberbullying Prevention and Response. Routledge, 2011.
  
• Shariff S. Confronting Cyber-Bullying: What Schools Need to Know to Control Misconduct and Avoid Legal Consequences. Cambridge Univ, 2009.
  
• Sontag L, et al. Traditional and cyber aggressors and victims: A comparison of psychosocial characteristics. J Youth Adolesc 2011;40:392-404.
  
• Tyrrell J. Janáček's Operas: A Documentary Account. Faber & Faber, 1998.
  
• Wang J, et al. Cyber and traditional bullying: Differential association with depression. J Adolesc Health 2011;48:415-7.
  
• Wang J, et al. Co-occurrence of victimization from five subtypes of bullying: Physical, verbal, social exclusion, spreading rumors, and cyber. J Ped Psych 2010;35:1103-12.
  
• Whittall A. Exploring Twentieth-Century Music: Tradition and Innovation. Cambridge Univ, 2003.

L   eave it to follow from what you are reading now: a different situation from the present one; a pattern of activity from different from the historical and psychological contexts where your reading is done in the Here and Now... Here and Now, the [opportune] place for engaging other impassioned unions and charged connections amongst us. Imagine a future where you connect like this exclusively, with the greatest fortune and unprecedented speed.].”   — Wiener Staatsoper screen.