Sport: for UConn, Even the greatest streak has an end

The Huskies’ 111-game run came to a stunning end when Mississippi State pulled off perhaps the biggest upset in women’s basketball history, winning 66-64 on Morgan William’s overtime buzzer beater in the national semifinals Friday night.

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Mississippi State stuns UConn at the buzzer! (via @espn)

11:25 PM - 31 Mar 2017

 
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“I can’t say I’m surprised,” Auriemma said. “It’s something I’ve been talking about to the guys all year long. I’ve been talking about it all year. We’re playing way above our years, way above our experience level and tonight it caught up to us when we needed to be more mature with what we’re doing.”

“We didn’t have it. A big part of it was because of what they were doing,” the coach said.

The Huskies hadn’t lost in 865 days, with that defeat coming to Stanford in overtime on Nov. 17, 2014. Winning had become routine, often by routs. But in an instant, their drive toward a fifth consecutive national championship had been blocked.

When William’s jumper dropped, Auriemma broke into that wry smile. He turned to his bench, then went to congratulate the Bulldogs.

“We had an incredible run, but we came up against a much better team tonight,” Auriemma said.

It took an incredible shot by Mississippi State’s diminutive point guard to end the historic streak.

William hit a 15-footer to cap it, moments after a replay review awarded UConn two free throws for a flagrant 1 foul call that tied the score with 26.6 seconds left.

“I live for moments like this,” William said. “UConn, they’re an incredible team. For me to make that shot against them, it’s unbelievable. I’m still in shock right now. I wanted to take the shot. I wanted to take the shot and I made it.”

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UConn guard Gabby Williams wipes away tears after Friday night’s stunning Final Four loss.AP

The Bulldogs (34-4) will play South Carolina for the national championship Sunday night in a matchup of two SEC teams.

Mississippi State and UConn met in the Sweet 16 last season and the Huskies won by 60 points — the most-lopsided win in regional semifinals history. All season long the Bulldogs had that humiliating loss on their minds.

Now they have erased that defeat, beating UConn (36-1) on the grandest stage in one of the sport’s greatest games.

“I don’t have to play them 100 times. Only have to beat them once,” Mississippi State coach Vic Schaefer said. “That is one heck of a basketball team, the greatest of all-time. But how proud am I of my kids?”

Mississippi State led 64-62 before a replay review gave Katie Lou Samuelson the two free throws that tied the score. After a UConn turnover, William held the ball at the top of the key before dribbling to her right and pulling up for the shot, with the ball in the air when the buzzer sounded.

The Bulldogs ran onto the court, piling up at center court while UConn players stood stone-faced. Schaefer grabbed William in a bear hug, with former Mississippi State star Dak Prescott — the Dallas Cowboys quarterback — helping lead the cheers. Prescott said he’d try to come back Sunday for the title game.

Film: The Maker of "A Dry White Season" Returns

The MIPCOM 2016 Women in Global Entertainment Power Lunch once again features some of the industry’s heavy-hitters discussing the role of women, both on and off-screen, Indian Television reports.

The fifth edition of MIPCOM’s annual thought leadership and networking event for the most influential women shaping the future of TV and entertainment is run in partnership with A+E Networks and Lifetime, along with The Hollywood Reporter.

The global entertainment content market, MIPCOM takes place in Cannes, France, from 17-20 October. The Women in Global Entertainment Power Lunch is scheduled for Monday 17 October, at the Hotel Majestic.

The event will be introduced by A+E Networks chief marketing officer Amanda Hill, who will take a deep dive into the female experience, uncovering and highlighting the important issues facing women today via a recent Lifetime study. In addition, Hill will discuss Lifetime’s launch of a new multiplatform initiative called The Fempire, which targets fourth-wave feminists. Its mission is to create content for women, by women, about women, and to engage with them 24/7.

This will be followed by a presentation from Emmy® Award-nominated Constance Zimmer and fellow actress Shiri Appleby, who both star in Lifetime’s “UnREAL”. They will talk about their respective roles in the series, and how it ties into Lifetime’s ethos and what female empowerment means today.

The Women in Global Entertainment programme continues with an inspirational conversation between two leading figures of the film and TV industries, Betsy Beers, Partner at Shondaland, and pioneering French Director, Screenwriter, and Producer Euzhan Palcy.

A multi-award-winning producer, Beers is Executive Producer of ABC Studios’ hit series “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Scandal,” “How to Get Away With Murder,” and “The Catch,” along with the upcoming new Untitled Shondaland Project (formerly known as "Still Star-Crossed"). In 2008, Beers partnered with Shonda Rhimes and her company Shondaland to develop and produce additional feature film and television projects. Prior to her exclusive foray into television, Beers served as President of the Mark Gordon Company, President of director Mike Newell’s Dogstar Films, and developed and produced such films as “200 Cigarettes,” “High Fidelity,” and “Pushing Tin” among many others. In 2014, Beers and Rhimes were honoured by the Directors Guild of America with the coveted Diversity Award for their commitment to diversity hiring and their long record of providing opportunities to women and minorities. (Rhimes is also being honoured as MIPCOM 2016 Personality of the Year.)

Euzhan Palcy(above left), is an award-winning filmmaker, and the first black female director produced by a major Hollywood studio, through her apartheid-themed feature movie, “A Dry White Season” (MGM, 1989). She is also the first black person ever to win a Cesar, the French Film Academy Awards, and the only woman ever to have directed Marlon Brando. Through films such as “Sugar Cane Alley,” “Ruby Bridges” and “The Killing Yard,” her work explores themes of race, gender, and social justice from a decidedly feminist and humanist perspective. In 2016, Palcy received the Honorary Award of the first Positive Cinema Week of Cannes, and The Wrap included her on its list of 17 Most Influential Women Who Revolutionised Hollywood. Palcy will unveil exclusive images in Cannes from an interview she did with the late South African President in a segment entitled “Nelson Mandela and the Role of Women,” an extract from a 25-minute filmed interview.

“For the fifth edition of MIPCOM’s Women in Global Entertainment Power Lunch, we are delighted to welcome a line-up of women who are behind some of the most creative and challenging content in contemporary television. The summit is thus continuing its mission as a key event for those women who are shaping the future of TV and entertainment,” said Reed MIDEM’s Television Division director Laurine Garaude

Live Music: Wowing 'Em at the Wine Shop

Its probably the last place one might expect to see an octet (plus vocalists) in action, but the parking lot of Kingston's Southdale Plaza proved quite conducive to a typically spirited live music session, part of a series dubbed "Jazz in the Street" and spearheaded by Ahmet Osman, proprietor of The Wine Shop that anchors the popular mall (popular coffee bar Suise's sits at the other end).

Harold Davis led the aforementioned 8-piece (with guitarist Seretse Small doing double duty as musical director  and he began with suitable respect to the "jazz" in the title with Lerner and Loewe's "Almost Like Being in Love" (popularized by Nat King Cole among others). Thereafter, it was the expected (at least for this writer) but still heartily welcome mixed bag of Jamaican and global standards (including a superior reading of Jobim's "Desafinado", all delivered with Davis' trademark joyous stance - both on vocals and on keyboards, and supported by a crack team of players: Andrew Thompson drums; Paul Madden on bass; Courtney Sinclair on keyboards; Warren Harris on alto sax; Romeo Gray on trombone; Everol Wray on trumpet. Sabrina Nembhard and Thamar Williams provided background vocals andalso presented their own mini-cabarets earlier in the evening.

A rousing ska/rocksteady tribute mixed well with Osman's libations to get most of the crowd (and most of them women, in fact) out of their seats and on their feet, a closing suite which segued nicely into a brief medley of American r n' b classics, the latter preceded by a bad joke and the obligatory calls for encore.

By night's end, the audience, though not fully sated, were certainly well-served musically, in compliment to the wine and buffet that Osman and Company intend to form the core of the experience as the series continues.


ofr enquires, contact The Wine Shop at wineranch46@gmail.com

Live Music: Wowing 'Em at the Wine Shop,

Its probably the last place one might expect to see an octet (plus vocalists) in action, but the parking lot of Kingston's Southdale Plaza proved quite conducive to a typically spirited live music session, part of a series dubbed "Jazz in the Street" and spearheaded by Ahmet Osman, proprietor of The Wine Shop that anchors the popular mall (popular coffee bar Suise's sits at the other end).

Harold Davis led the aforementioned 8-piece (with guitarist Seretse Small doing double duty as musical director  and he began with suitable respect to the "jazz" in the title with Lerner and Loewe's "Almost Like Being in Love" (popularized by Nat King Cole among others). Thereafter, it was the expected (at least for this writer) but still heartily welcome mixed bag of Jamaican and global standards (including a superior reading of Jobim's "Desafinado", all delivered with Davis' trademark joyous stance - both on vocals and on keyboards, and supported by a crack team of players: Andrew Thompson drums; Paul Madden on bass; Courtney Sinclair on keyboards; Warren Harris on alto sax; Romeo Gray on trombone; Everol Wray on trumpet. Sabrina Nembhard and Thamar Williams provided background vocals andalso presented their own mini-cabarets earlier in the evening.

A rousing ska/rocksteady tribute mixed well with Osman's libations to get most of the crowd (and most of them women, in fact) out of their seats and on their feet, a closing suite which segued nicely into a brief medley of American r n' b classics, the latter preceded by a bad joke and the obligatory calls for encore.

By night's end, the audience, though not fully sated, were certainly well-served musically, in compliment to the wine and buffet that Osman and Company intend to form the core of the experience as the series continues.


ofr enquires, contact The Wine Shop at wineranch46@gmail.com

Live Music: Wowing 'Em at the Wine Shop,

Its probably the last place one might expect to see an octet (plus vocalists) in action, but the parking lot of Kingston's Southdale Plaza proved quite conducive to a typically spirited live music session, part of a series dubbed "Jazz in the Street" and spearheaded by Ahmet Osman, proprietor of The Wine Shop that anchors the popular mall (popular coffee bar Suise's sits at the other end).

Harold Davis led the aforementioned 8-piece (with guitarist Seretse Small doing double duty as musical director  and he began with suitable respect to the "jazz" in the title with Lerner and Loewe's "Almost Like Being in Love" (popularized by Nat King Cole among others). Thereafter, it was the expected (at least for this writer) but still heartily welcome mixed bag of Jamaican and global standards (including a superior reading of Jobim's "Desafinado", all delivered with Davis' trademark joyous stance - both on vocals and on keyboards, and supported by a crack team of players: Andrew Thompson drums; Paul Madden on bass; Courtney Sinclair on keyboards; Warren Harris on alto sax; Romeo Gray on trombone; Everol Wray on trumpet. Sabrina Nembhard and Thamar Williams provided background vocals andalso presented their own mini-cabarets earlier in the evening.

A rousing ska/rocksteady tribute mixed well with Osman's libations to get most of the crowd (and most of them women, in fact) out of their seats and on their feet, a closing suite which segued nicely into a brief medley of American r n' b classics, the latter preceded by a bad joke and the obligatory calls for encore.

By night's end, the audience, though not fully sated, were certainly well-served musically, in compliment to the wine and buffet that Osman and Company intend to form the core of the experience as the series continues.


ofr enquires, contact The Wine Shop at wineranch46@gmail.com

Live Music: Sisters Did It at Jazz in the Gardens

The penultimate engagement of the year for the series gave the mic (and in at least one case, the instrument) to the ladies, and they certainly did not disappoint. time did not permit us to take in all the acts, but gospel-jazz singer Diamara Neil, Judi Emmanuel, Althea Hewitt, newcomer Orisha Sound and opener Azurri all sparkled on the night.




http://www.amway.com/emxgroup

Book review: The erotic memoir returns, from the East

A touchstone of the 1970s "Me Decade"(and in fact a holdover from the 1920s/1930s heyday of Henry Miller, Anais Nin et al), the erotic memoir  essentially disappeared from popular consciousness and discourse from the early 80s onward.

Who better than a Jamaican to revive the genre and with a near unexpected twist?

Stefhen Bryan initially escapes his mother's repressive parental style, or so he thinks, when he lands,at age 15, at his father's place in New York City. When it becomes clear however, that his father is totally uninterested in nay kind of relationship with him, he begins a westward odyssey that takes him first to Denver Colorado, and eventually to California. the substance of Bryan's parental relationships are detailed in the one-man play "Doodu Boy", which forms an important corollary to this book.

After gaining his first degree, and with brief detours in the UK as well as back in his native Jamaica, Bryan - financially down and dogged by his own familial obligations, accepts, in 2001, an offer to teach English in Japan, where he is suddenly able to fulfill his long-held predilection for Oriental women - an appetite first stoked in Jamaica, where the girls of Chinese and mixed ancestry offered a picture of  financial substance relative tothe grinding poverty of his own formative years.

Thus given free rein, Bryan indulges in a sexual spree that would likely defeat many men and may well have made Miller himself proud. Wives, students, professionals (including the co-ordinator of his teaching course) all make up what he describes as a "revolving army of sexual partners, all Japanese. 

The memoir describes Bryan's carnal adventures through a cultural lens that touches on interracial relationships, promiscuity, patriarchy and abortion. Included is sex research that one reviewer asserts "would make Kinsey proud." 

This ethnic exclusivity does impart to the author some insights as to a national psyche of the Japanese woman (aided by Bryan's own extensive bouts of therapy), but for the reader, it largely comes off as a little black book opened for public viewing; one sexual conquest essentially following another, with much the same descriptives used. Bryan's dynamism (coupled with a distinctly amoral persona) is palpable, but the prose itself is never spectacular enough to transcend the subject matter. 


 The author's outsider-insider observations of mores and relationships in Japan are fascinating. They are also the kind of blunt talk you won't get elsewhere. Black Passenger, Yellow Cabs is a ride you may take willingly - but perhaps only once.

Poetry: Cherry Natural, Warrior Poet

Cherry Natural unleashed powerful poems laden with strong messages of female empowerment, revolution and love on Tuesday when she performed as featured poet at the Poetry Society of Jamaica’s March Fellowship. Entitled Woman Rising, the fellowship was hosted to pay homage to women and poetry in a twofold celebration of International Women’s Day and World Poetry Day.

The open mic segment served as the night’s starter and saw varied presentations, a few of which provoked discussion in the analysis segment. The evening’s featured works also saw the reading of Lorna Goodison’s Where I Come From and Prof. Mervyn Morris’ Writing as tributes, honouring women and the craft of writing respectively.

Cherry Natural started her reading with Pickney Poems, detailing the birth and development of her poems, and then addressed the creative space and contributions of poets in Is Long Time Poets A Write. From there on she ventured extensively into the terrain of women’s empowerment, beginning with Woman I Was Born, which speaks about women not having to fit within established norms to be considered woman.

“I don’t have to be weak and fragile,” she said, acknowledging singer Pam Hall, who was in attendance. The backing track for Woman I was Born, which Hall produced and is on Cherry Natural's Earth Woman album, is from a Pam Hall song.

In the same vein Natural read Woman of My Word and Man Show, the latter detailing what she said was the struggle she faced as a woman coming up in the industry, especially in doing performances.

In one of many poems that hit home she read Slanguage, taking jabs at pop culture and its attendant language, noting that people were “swaggin right back pan di slave ship.” The usually fiery poet shifted things around with Compatible, outlining the qualities she might like in a partner, and also addressed love with Warrior’s Love Poem, both of which elicited much applause.

Cherry Natural closed with Fight Back, a piece that had a strong impact on the predominantly female gathering. Natural shared some of her martial arts expertise in advising women to take a stand against abuse, saying, “first time victim, second time volunteer.” She used a pair of nunchucks to do an elaborate demonstration, much to the surprise and excitement of the audience. “We take the revolution serious,” Cherry Natural said.

Following up on her 2012 album Intellectual Bad Gal, the public can expect a new writing project of the same name from Cherry Natural. It is a book of poems, quotations and self-defence tips.

-FRom the Sunday Gleaner