A Bit of Shakespeare

The Washington, D.C. has a lot of Shakespeare Theatre action going on at the moment. If you live in the area or are planning a road trip and you are a fan of the Bard I have a few suggestions. Yes there will be a little shameless self promotion but hey that's what I do. However, in the spirit of pay it forward I will share some other folks work as well.

This has to be one of the best reviews I have read. Jordan Wright reviewed "Othello" at the Synetic Theatre which is having their Shakespeare Fest. Imagine outstanding performances without words. It runs through November 6, 2011 in Crystal City.

If you like your "Othello" with words it is playing at the Folger Theatre through December 4, 2011. You can read what Jessica Pearson had to say about the show here.

If you are still thinking about summer, A Midsummer Night's Dream might be for you. If you like the play the Elden Street Players have one heck of a performance running through |November 12, 2011. It has an outstanding cast and I was very impressed by Ian Pederson, a teen actor who is wow as Puck. You can read my review here.

I needed to mix up my blog a bit it isn't all about football or sports. A lot of it is theatre and music and a few surprises now and then.

Golf Still Going Strong!

Drama and Competition brought the two top golfers on the PGA Tour to Florida to play the final PGA event. The Fall Series events were supposed to be the land of the unknown golfers. However, this year Tiger Woods made an appearance at one event to try to fix his game. The final event featured Luke Donald and Webb Simpson to battle it out for the PGA Money title. As a golf fan you have to enjoy it. Here is my reaction to Luke Donald's Big Win.

Down a level and a couple of hours north in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. Gavin Coles won the first Winn-Dixie Jacksonville Open. I am excited Sawgrass was able to get a Nationwide Tour event to go along with The Players Championship. It is the next to last event on the tour and I love how they have added more drama by having 25 PGA cards on the line for the top 25 money finishers. You can read my reaction to this event here.

Yes it is late October but there is still some great Pro Golf action going on.

Pay it Forward Encore

Yes the Pay it Forward Festival was last Friday but it was so much fun I am going to do it again.

First up The Quintessentially Questionable Query Experiment by Matthew MacNish and Alex J. Cavanaugh and his blog. They are the people who put together the Pay it Forward Blogfest so kudos to both of them.

Okay in the spirit of things here is another blog from the fest called Fiction and Film. by Kate Larkindale. Like me she is a writer, she review films I haven't dived into that yet but I do review plays. She's a mother I am a father. She doesn't get much sleep and either do I. So we have a lot in common but she writes an enjoyable blog check her out.

Next up Janice Phelps Williams Appalachian Morning. Well, I wake up to one every day living in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, I am literally just a few hundred yards from the Appalachian Trail. Janice is a writer, illustrator, artist, creative gem check out her stuff at her blog.

Well that's what I have this week...

Football Trade

Just some more football talk here. Fox Sports is reporting the Cincinnati Bengals have traded Quarterback Carson Palmer to the Oakland Raiders for a first round pick next year, and a second/possible first in 2013. Just looking at this story everything says this is a win for the Bengals.

They survived the stare down with Carson Palmer. Palmer missed six games and the Bengals went 4-2. Yes, Carson got his trade but he had to be a bit nervous and it cost him six games. Cincinnati looked tough but not stubborn since a suitor came a long. The Bengals didn't bungle the deal either getting an extra first round pick in the first round will help them. A first or second round pick the following year is a bonus. A sweet deal as some quarterbacks have been traded for just a third round pick.

The Oakland Raiders are 4-2 as well. They might have overpaid. However, with their quarterback out with an injury they needed to do something. It was a flashy trade. It is a big name. Oakland is hoping they got the quarterback to get them to the playoffs this season in Carson Palmer. They hope he doesn't come in out of shape or has a learning curve with the playbook. It was a gamble, a bold move, but that kind of fits for the Raiders.

Here is his press conference:

Football

Well the Gators lost their third straight this week. So, I decided to give them a rest this week. Instead, I wrote about my home state West Virginia Mountaineers who are ranked 15th in the first BCS poll.You can read my reaction to it here. I think they are in a great spot if they can avoid an upset in the second half. The schedule will be tougher since everyone is a conference foe. Below is a promo for this season:

In other football news my fantasy football team won for a second week in a row. Next week will be tough since I have a lot of players out due to the bye week. I did however pick up a solid wide receiver who was injured on waivers which I hope will strengthen my team down the stretch. My team will need all the help they can get as I think they are perhaps the weakest one I have fielded through the years.

Latest Theatre Review: Driving Miss Daisy

Okay I have been slacking about posting some of my theatre reviews on here. Let me go ahead and make up for it now.

Driving Miss Daisy plays through October 23 at the Arts Barn in Gaithersburg, Maryland. I gave it a five star review pretty much based on the acting alone. David Jones, Arthur F. Greene, and Jane Squier Bruns turn in some incredible performances. You can read my entire review here.

I have some other reviews up on the site but Driving Miss Daisy is the only one still playing. I am not scheduled to review anything for a little while. However, that could change and I do have a show lined up at the end of the month so stay tuned. In the spirit of playing it forward check out the rest of the site for reviews of theatre happening all around the Washington and Baltimore areas.

Pay it forward

Okay something new. I am doing the pay it forward Friday thing. Where I guess I am suppose to pick three blogs and play them forward from a list.

If you want to find out more you can check it out here. Which is kind of cool because I have been featuring a few other writers on my blog any way. Well at least linking articles. Well, these blogs are new to me and might be new to you as well so we will be discovering together.

Em Dashes and Ice Cream by Brenda McKenna . She lives across the country from me in Washington State. Her blog title caught my eye since it mentioned ice cream . I like ice cream, ice cream does not like my waist line but beer doesn't either. Anyway she has a three year old and they have adventures. I can relate since I have a four year old and I  have many adventures. It is neat we share some of the same experiences at similar places even though we are miles apart.

Sean McLachlan's Civil War Horror is an excellent civil war blog. Blogs, book reviews, lots of history. Since, I live in a hot spot in the Civil War it caught my attention. I live in Harpers Ferry anmd I used to live close to Antietam, and I know the best darn chocolate place in Gettysburg.


Write, Skate, Dream is a blog by Jess. She is only 15 but quite a talented young lady. She writes a lot. Plays the violin, She skates. I hope she dreams big cuase I think she is going to make a few of those dreams happen. 

This week's football

To many deaths lately so at least there is football...

The good news is my fantasy football team came back from the dead and I won this week! Considering the week before I was blown out and lost by the most in the league.

Talking about big losses, the Florida Gators got a hurting from the LSU Tigers. You can read my break down of the Gators here Florida Gators crushed 41-11 by LSU: A fan's reaction.  You can read a happier reaction from Patrick Johnston here. I linked one of his articles in last week's blog before the game as well. 


I am have linked articles by other authors in the past in my blog but they have been far and few between. So, I am trying to link a few more. Especially, when the articles are good and share a different perspective on the subject which Patrick does and he writes for the same outfit as I do.


The Gators were not the only college team in Florida to have a bad weekend. The Miami Hurricanes and Florida State Seminoles both lost. No team from Florida was ranked for the first time since 1982. You can read my opinion on that here. I agree with the pollsters since I don't have any Florida teams in my rankings. You can check who I do have ranked here.


Stay tuned for more ramblings....

R.I.P Al Davis

Al Davis, the long term owner who has been loved, hated has passed away at the age of 82.Al had success having 34 winning seasons in his 48 years of ownership. The Raiders also won three Super Bowls during that time.

Sure his team has missed the playoffs the last eight years and he did move the team to L.A and back. No fan will ever be 100% happy with their team's owner. But in the greater scheme of things he opened a lot of doors. He hired the first black coach and the first Latino coach in the NFL. He also hired the first female CEO in the NFL. These were all great advances which were overdue when they happened.

Here is Al Davis:

Some will be glad Al is no longer the owner, but I am sure few would have wished him death. His death will open up questions regarding who will own the Raiders? Will they go the market? May Al Davis rest in peace.

Thoughts on Steve Jobs

I am sure everything I could possibly say about Steve Jobs has been said. He added much to our world. A world of computers, I-pods, smart phones and more. When I was studying business he was an example  used several times. So he influenced me in technology. He influenced me in the class room.

He died at 56 which is too young. It is funny the older I get the older the age of someone dying too young increases. He was successful. I haven't got there yet, but he set a pretty high bar which I don't think I can achieve. However, he was very philanthropic. Something, i strive to be. I am glad he was. I believe with great wealth comes great responsibility.

He was genius, but I think his team deserve some of the credit. He, will be a loss but technology will keep moving forward.

R.I.P Bert Jansch

I discovered Bert Jansch much the same way I discovered the blues. Through continued exploration of music where Led Zeppelin had left off. Through that band and others opening the doors I was able to discover and explore and develop my own taste. Bert wasn't blues but then again Zeppelin was not just blues based rocked. Jimmy Page "pinched" some of Bert's arrangements and made them his own. Bert Jansch was one of the acoustic, folk influences that was present in the band.Here is a prime example of that influence with Zeppelin:

Bert influenced many more than just Jimmy Page. The list includes Neil Young and Oasis to name a couple.
Rolling Stone Magazine named him one of 100 influential guitarists of all time. In a Washington Post obituary Neil young called him "as much of a great guitar player as Jimi Hendrix was."Below is a song that Neil confessed he copped a lot and was a lot of Bert in this song.

The song it was influenced by:

For more I would recommend the Washington Post obituary here.


I will add some more Bert down on my blog where I have something from you tube.
In the meantime here is some more Bert:
Moonshine:

R.I.P. Bert Jansch

College Football, Mostly Gators

Been a busy week writing a lot of college football articles.First I have my college rankings for this week. It was hard not to put Alabama number one. Here is my ranking. I am not going to reveal a lot but I am sure there are some surprises in it.

Then I wrote about the Gators falling to Alabama, you can read it here. The Crimson Tide sure did make their case for number one. I moved them up to number two. Below are some high lights.

Then I wrote about the Gators quarterback being out when they face number one LSU. You can read that here. To give another point of view here is a story by a colleague on the same subject but from a Tigers fan point of view. Patrick Johnston appears to be a pretty true LSU fan so it should be a good read.

Welcome to October

I can't believe I haven't posted here in two weeks. Now, there is so much I could I post but then again maybe not. I've been busy writing and writing. Reviewing shows. Then there is the normal home life and work. In other words I  have been living in the rush rush world of a part time writer.

I've been Tweeting more. Adding lists and it is the fastest way to plug what I write. If you would like to follow me on twitter you can find me here @ThePlaceofMike.


You can also follow me on facebook at my fan page here. On that page I pretty much just plug what I think are my highlights.

Other than that I have been failing miserably at staying warm in dry. The weather has been unseasonably wet and chilly for the first few days of October. If could be worse Snowshoe a few hours away received 9 inches of snow. Which would be great if I was at Snowshoe since I like to ski but they are not open yet.