About Me

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Split personality. Liking the arts, especially opera, and hockey and Los Toros. I know, I know THAT one is non pc currently. But I can't help it saw some in Spain and got hooked, but good. But on the other hand right now opera and hockey are in the forefront!

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Friday, March 29, 2013

In praise of the, almost, unknown goalie

Hoggan Goal
Cody Reichard.... yes, he did let in 2 goals by Hoggan one just.29 seconds into the first, and the second Hoggan goal a bit later. Rau and Petersen scored for the home team.
If Hoggan would have scored the 3. goal in the 3. for threGriffins... he'd a had a hat trick.
But he didn't.
He just had an assist to Billins. :-).
Maybe those sexy pads of McCollum did
discombolute the Aeros :-)?
Maybe other things on their mind did.
Griffs certainly went all out after last nights loss to the Rampage.
IMO the Aeros were taken aback by the immediacy of the Hoggan goal and had a hard time getting it together, even WITH the 2 goals by Rau and Petersen.
After the Rau goal..on a PP - McCollum prone-but not in admiration :-)
If not for Reichard stopping all 14 sogs by Grand Rapids in the second period, the team could have lost BIG. And I mean it. 
Rebound
The aggressive activity (at times IMO assisted by some NON-calls by Referee Darcy WHO .. ah, Burchell) could have resulted in lots more goals. Thanks to Reichard it didn't.

Griffins out skated the Aeros, hate to say this, but they did. They also seem to have played a more NHL like game.. rough but sneaky.

Did they already KNOW the referee and know what they could get away with - just a  feeling, no real reason for thinking this.
Pad safe.. just one of many tonight
Nr.12 beginning his sub-marining move!
Now the third period!
Well, what about that?
A blatant 'u-boating' of Reichard within the crease by (was it Nr. 12 Raedeke?) was nonchalantly ignored by Burchell.
BUG Brian Stewart studying? action on ice;-)
But he did call a penalty on some Aeros who retaliated - IMO justifiably, to the Griffs attacks on Reichard at other times. According to Better Half, that -'submarining' event int he 3. wasn't the only one, there was another earlier, which I did missed.
Gimme a break, 6 penalties on the Aeros and ONLY 3 on the Griffins!

Who'd believe that who were there tonight among the good crowd of 7600 plus.

Why - we are attracting bigger crowds lately? Due to aggressive marketing? Or the desire to see a game of HOUSTON Hockey before it ends? Who knows.
The crowd wasn't quiet as vocal as a size like tha
t ought to be! Qien Sabe!

BTW amongst them were some "visitors from space"- Aeronauts such as Cunningham (Left)

On the other hand, The Wild vs Dallas also lost.. 3-5 (Dallas made 3 PP goals).
Hackett in goal, Kuemper on the bench! According to Chris Breuer, who was there watching, he played decently considering the PP goals...
here a photo by Chris Breuer of Hackett at warm ups... thanks Chris!
Hackett in Dallas, photo credit Chris Breuer

Reformed Sinners make New Fanatics

It has always bothered me, as it should all thinking people, that anyone who 'reformed' from whatever addiction they practised, soon tries to cram their newly found salvation down everyone else's throat. ONLY they are right. And so they pursue that right fanatically

Why is that so?
Do they still feel guilty about having "reformed"?
Feel sorry about giving up said addiction?
Feel lonely now. and crave the company of others?
Want to 'lord' it over others still addicted?
"Being better than thou", so to speak!
Most really seem only IMO to have exchanged one addiction for another.

When it comes to food and drink:
So it's healthier, or is it?
In the case of gluten free: do we all really need to forgo gluten, if we are not sufferers from celiac disease?
What about sugar? Unless one is a diabetic, one does not need to give up sugar, not even for lent :-).
OK, meat... what is so darn wrong with enjoying the occasional piece of meat? Even raw as in Steak Tatar?
And the continuous 'discoveries' that this or that is BAD for you-at least this month. Next mont' it won't be that bad, after all. But then the next "non-flavor" of the month, the next "designer taboo" crops up.
Are we on the way to slurping pap of bland colorless, aroma less, tasteless, but oh, so 'healthy' stuff?
So maybe, those authors of science fiction who described food automats, and such, were true oracles, after all.
Even in the movies, Woody Allen's "Sleeper" could be the future,  could it not?
 
Just push a button and out plops the healthy gunk we might soon be prescribed to eat.
 But what if we don't?
Beware big brother or may be sister will be watching and slap you with fines or worse for disobeying the rules.

Best to practice 'moderation in anything. Variety in life is what makes it worth living!
Let me just quote: Francesco Petrarch
"Sameness is the mother of disgust, variety the cure"
Even the Chinese had a saying:
"Sour, sweet, bitter, pungent, all must be tasted".

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Monday, March 25, 2013

And then there were none... goals that is for the Rampage


Yes Sir, I know its a bottle, next time it'll be a puck, one of 39!
Lieuwen at work
Yes, it's true, yesterday's game Rampage vs Rochester ended in a Shut out 3-0 for the visitor from the East. Who had some dedicated Sabre Jersey clad Fans in the audience, right behind the Amerks' bench..
Nathan Lieuwen cold stopped Rampage's 39 shots on goal, 10 if which have to be credited a very busy Ortmeyer.
Melee-just one of many in front of Lieuwen

Ortmeyer at work










 Back soon where he usually is.. Orty
BTW Orty was were he could do the most damage - that is in front of Lieuwen, but the Amerks defense and Lieuwen was just too good. 
Orty hurt?

At one time Orty looked hurt.. but was back in the blink of an eye and back in front of the net of Lieuwen.

Timmins
Timmins at face off












A wide awake and sober (Lol) Timmons (32) nailed face off after face off (photos above).
Gauthier-Leduc (34) to Gomes (12): "Hey, bud get off our goalie !" :-) it was that kind of game!
Barlow (10) skated like pursued by the devil during periods 1 and 2, but lost steam in the 3.
He also was the lucky (lol ?) winner of the most PIMs ;-). 
Sadly, most of the Rampage players seemed uncoordinated, skated, while not exactly sluggishly, certainly less energetic, missed passes..etc.
The only reason, Rampage did not loose with more goals against was entirely due to the efforts of Grumet-Morris - he did some great saves. He DID stop 9 in the 1, 5 in the 2. and all 8 in the 3.

And Rampage ought to have made some goals, the way Ortmeyer was present with his 10 shots on goal ,  Timmons had  5.
Grumet Morris save in 1.
Grumet Morris save in 3.




                                   











High Fives, y'all.

Leggio observing :-) Dov
Other observations:
Leggio (not in net this time) certainly had a grandstand view of the opposing goalie.
Helmet malfunction for Rochester-this game:-)

Got my helmet back ;-)! - no, really - a high stick save by Lieuwen!

And finally, a Leggio  rather chummy with Koharski,
the, oh so unbiased (at times-lol) ref.

Did he thanked him for officiating so well (?) at both games this weekend -just kidding!

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Cody Reichard mans up at the game

and keeps the Rochester Americans in check through quickness, flexibility, glove catches and using his chest to deflect pucks - just to keep them from going into the net, except for 2 in the second period, and,alas, the third in the SO by Biega, which wins the game for Rochester 3-2.
Overall it was kind of nail biter game. And gained the team 1 point!
Reichard showed his mettle by stopping 27 of 29 SoGs. IMO he has real potential. He may need more practise facing 'shoot out foes'. Good JOB!
Even with a foe on top of him in his net, Reichard did make the save
Leggio, who has improved from last season for sure, stopped 38 of the 40 he was peppered with by an 'energizer bunny' team  in the first and second period. 
Rau with McMillan scored first.
Both teams held onto their 2 goals each on OT  but Rochester scored 3 vs the Aeros' 2 goal in SO. Leggio appeared (to me) to give advice to a Cody McCormick.. maybe how he saw Reichard react? But to no avail, McCormick did not score.
Despite the fact that Rochester sits in 1st place in their division with their penalty kill, Aeros' Phillips with Scandella and Granlund (again laying up for good shot) scored on one of their 4 PP.

Again, IMO, the Aeros' passing was good, the penalty kill much more effective, this speedy and rather physical game made tonight worth watching.

And a fight broke out ;-
Yes, I know they lost 2 to the 3 vs  Rochester BUT it was only in the SO the others gained the upper hand. Otherwise the pace of game was fast and furious with a total of 70 - yes - 70 sogs by both teams.
Granlund really seems to have iron lungs, he was out there so much - it seems he never took a break.

McMillan tried, oh how he tried, only to have the perfect pass from Granlund go stratospheric.
 He tried, McMillan did!

Save by Reichard

Here you are ref.. a puck!
Starting with helmet malfunction?

.
Rau and Larsson inplace at the right time, but no goal afterall.
in the 2nd.:More helmet problems?

Playing hard 'puck' and not taking any gaff from the "foe"-this was an Aeros team not much seen in the first months of the season. 
If they keep this up.....Calder Cup may not be just wishful  thinking after all :-)!
Now - if the referee would have done HIS job better.....
Unhappy, even mad Coach! ;-)
well it was obvious that coach Torchetti was NOT happy with Kosharsky in OT-above.
And the fans boooed rather loudly the ;'non-decision by Koharsky, as well.

Friday, March 22, 2013

Pictures call into mind others



James Ensor 1860-1949
For my hockey lover readers I ought to post more on the coming game between Aeros and OKC tonight,
Skeletons warming at a Fire
but
having seen so recently many photos of snowy scenes on FB pages from around the world,  and truly hating the cold,

I cannot but recall a small painting (Ft. Worth Museum) at right , by the Belgian Painter James Ensor (self portrait left), whose work was rejected initially as scandalous.

From wikipedia: 
     

The yearly philanthropic "Bal du Rat Mort" (Dead Rat Ball) in Ostend continues a tradition begun by Ensor and his friends in 1898.
Ensor has been paid homage by contemporary painters and artists in other media: he is the subject of a song, "Meet James Ensor", recorded in 1994 by the alternative rock duo They Might Be Giants. The 1996 Belgian movie, Camping Cosmos, was inspired by drawings of James Ensor, in particular Carnaval sur la plage (1887), La mort poursuivant le troupeau des humains (1896), and Le bal fantastique (1889). The film's director, Jan Bucquoy, is also the creator of a comic Le Bal du Rat mort inspired by Ensor. A portrait of James Ensor can be seen hanging in the room of Laurie Strode from the 1978 movie Halloween.

Ensor; Insects
I don't know if Franz  Kafka ever saw this Ensor piece before he wrote "Die Verwandlung"="Metamorphosis" or "The Transformation" A novella, published in 1915,  is seen as the representative fiction of the 20th century. The story begins with a traveling salesman, Gregor Samsa, waking to find himself transformed into a monstrous bug. It is never explained in the story why Samsa transforms, nor did Kafka ever give an explanation.

I am drawn to the sarcasm and scurrility of both works, the novella by Kafka and Ensor's skeletal art. and then there were those cinema noir films of the 60's that, too, as it seemed to me then, and even now, had to have been inspired by Ensor. Who surely saw beyond the facades of fashions and make up into the very soul of existence!  Example "Omicron" - Italy (science fiction comedy). Or "Signori e signore"-Italy (sex comedy).
Ensor
Ensor: Skeletons at billiards

Heroes come, and Heroes go: John Alexander, 

Maybe I am making too much of the connection between Ensor art (as I see it) and these cine noirs.

For sure John Alexander (living in NY, born in  1945 in Beaumont, Tx)
must have been inspired by Ensor, for some of his phantasmagoric and/or grotesque paintings.

John Alexander: Crane
As he undoubtedly was inspired by Audobon for his nature paintings.

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Aeros check Checkers 4-1

in front of a measly crowd (but it IS a Thursday night) of  4000 - absent STH must have been counted as well, because it just did not look that full to these old eyes :-)!

But even though they won with the empty netter by McMillan and Fontaine by 4 to the sole goal by Checkers' by Terry, Welsh and Raymond in the 2nd period, IMO it was not as exciting a game to watch as others have, and this one could have been. it was a win at home and that makes up for a lot, right, chers reader-hockey-fans?
Right?

First in line is Phillips.. last is Kuemps ;-)!
Kuemper did extra well, stopping all but that one, which did come on a PP for the Checkers.
Yes, the team's passing has rather improved.
Yes, 2 of 4 PP resulted in goals, by Phillips, Kampfer and Petersen, and Fontaine, Connelly and Petersen in the First.
Scandella with Granlund (he does a good job lining up pucks for others to score with) and Kuemper, put Aeros on the board about half into the First!
Yes, there was some grappling, and one real fight, and yet, IMO, it was just an average game.
Muse Nr. 1 during 1.period

Fredheim on guard

Granlund keeps a sharp eye on puck after face off
Save by Kuemps- first of 3
Second of 3
Saved-Third of 3
All looking, open mouthed, at Kuemper's saves from earlier in the game ;-)



Checkers switched goalies after Muse let in 3 in the First.

Madore Nr. 30 stops one of the 16 SOGS
And Rob Madore (also a 'short' goalie at 5'10), was so good in the 2. and 3. periods that Aeros could not score with any of the 16 Shots on goal. BTW the 2 Shots on Goal they managed on Madore in the Third were - shall we say - less than stellar!:-(
But a win and 2 points that's what counts, right!