FRENCH OPEN 2007: Women's Semifinals Preview

The 2007 French Open Women's semifinals are now set.

Justine Henin BEL (1) vs. Jelena Jankovic SRB (4).
Unfortunately, the Serena Williams-Justine Henin quarterfinal did not live up to the breathless hype. Serena was oddly flat and for some reason modified her game for clay court play by adding slice and finesse to her shots in order to defeat the best female clay court tennis player in the world. Serena lost in straight set 6-4, 6-3. The World #1 has played Jelena Jankovic five times and never lost, including two times on clay. Interestingly, all of their matches have gone three sets, and in all of their matches but one the Serbian player has won the first set. At last year's U.S. Open semifinal Jankovic was two points away from taking a near insurmountable lead in the second set when she had a mental meltdown after a confrontation with the umpire and ended up losing that set and failed to win another game. Henin has already won three Roland Garros titles and has set a new record for consecutive sets won at a Grand Slam event, however that streak will come to an end in this match. PREDICTION: Jankovic in 3 sets.

Ana Ivanovic SRB (7) vs. Maria Sharapova RUS (2). Sadly, Svetlana Kuznetsova could not handle the pressure of Roger Federer's admiration and lost to the pulchritudinous Serbian teenager 6-0, 3-6, 6-1. Sharapova easily defeated Anna Chakevetadze to attain her first Roland Garros semifinal. Sharapova and Ivanovic have only played twice before, with Sharapova winning a close match on hard courts and Ivanovic winning this year when Sharapova retired with a shoulder injury after losing the first set. The Russian had no right to get past crafty lefty Patty Schnyder in the 4th round and I refuse to believe that Ana Ivanovic will hesitate to go for broke when she holds match point to advance to her first Grand Slam final. PREDICTION: Ivanovic in 3 sets.

Steve Gilliard, Black Blogger, Dead at Age 42

Today's New York Times carried the obituary of Steve Gilliard, a liberal Black blogger based in New York City who published The News Blog, and was one of the few bloggers to make a living from the advertising revenue and reader donations generated by his blog. Gilliard was the first guest blogger at Dailykos.com when it had a mere 4000 readers a day, now the site has 100 times that. Markos Moulitsas Zuniga published his eulogy of "Gilly" (as he was called by friends) on his blog on Saturday night, hours after being informed of Gilliard's passing.

As many others have mentioned before, there are not that many African American bloggers period, and to find another Black, fiercely progressive, very intelligent voice in the blogosphere was quite an exciting moment for me. (Rod 2.0, Republic of T, Keith Boykin, Pam's House Blend, Bejata and Oliver Willis are others that come to mind immediately.) His blog was one of the first additions to the "Essential" section of The Mad Professah Lectures blogroll. Many of his readers didn't even know he was black.

He will be missed.

California Assembly Passes Marriage Equality Bill

Pam at The Blend reports on the passage of SB 11 (Migden) in California that Mad Professah blogged about yesterday but links it with the passage of AB 43 (Leno) the following day and the ongoing disappearance of rights for same-sex couples in Michigan.

Interestingly, yesterday's historic passage of the marriage equality bill by the State Assembly for the second time by a vote of 42-34 was far less controversial than when that body first considered the bill in Summer 2005. In fact, the bill (AB 19) failed to pass initially after four conservative members of the Democratic caucus balked and was only rescued through a controversial "gut and amend" procedure (becoming AB 849) and passed the State Senate by a vote of 21-15 first, making that body the first legislative chamber in the United States to pass a marriage equality bill on September 1, 2005. The Assembly then also passed the bill by the bare minimum of necessary votes 41-35 on September 6, 2005. Governor Arnold Schwarznegger vetoed the marriage equality bill on September 29, 2005.

The Los Angeles Times report ("Same sex unions OKd by Assembly") on the events on the Assembly floor notes that all Republican Assemblymembers voted no (so for anyone who says that "there is no difference between Democrats and Republicans" Mad Professah will point them to the respective voting records on LGBT-supportive legislation in California) and a number of Democratic Assemblymembers either voted no or abstained. "Democrats" Nicole Parra (30th District) and Wilmer Amina Carter (62nd District) voted no on Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act , while Juan Arambula, Mike Davis and Cathleen Galgiani were present but abstained. The odious Nell Soto was "ill" (not present) but would not have voted for the bill, since she did not vote for it when she was a state Senator in 2005.

Laura Richardson (who was called "homophobic" by the Dean of the California LGBT Legislative Caucus in the race for the 37th Congressional District recently) and most of the members in the Assembly of the California Legislative Black Caucus voted for the bill: Mervyn Dymally, Karen Bass and Curren Price although it is troubling to Mad Professah that Black Caucus members Mike Davis and Wilmer Carter either voted no or abstained. Here is the full roll call of the votes on AB 43:

AYES
****
Bass Beall Berg Brownley
Caballero Charles Calderon Coto De La Torre
De Leon DeSaulnier Dymally Eng
Evans Feuer Fuentes Hancock
Hayashi Hernandez Huffman Jones
Karnette Krekorian Laird Leno
Levine Lieber Lieu Ma
Mendoza Mullin Nava Portantino
Price Richardson Ruskin Salas
Saldana Solorio Swanson Torrico
Wolk Nunez

NOES
****
Adams Aghazarian Anderson Benoit
Berryhill Blakeslee Carter Cook
DeVore Duvall Emmerson Fuller
Gaines Garcia Garrick Horton
Houston Huff Jeffries Keene
La Malfa Maze Nakanishi Niello
Parra Plescia Sharon Runner Silva
Smyth Spitzer Strickland Tran
Villines Walters

ABSENT, ABSTAINING, OR NOT VOTING
*********************************
Arambula Davis Galgiani Soto

I would recommend calling your Assemblymember and giving them opinion of their vote on the marriage equality bill. I am going to call my members Anthony Portantino, Kevin DeLeon and the all members of the Black legislative Caucus.

Wow, that was fast! It took 20 minutes to call them all and say "I'd like to thank the Assemblymember for voting yes on AB 43 yesterday." In the case of Mike Davis, Nicole Parra and Wilmer Carter I said "I'd like to express my displeasure at the Assemblymember's vote(abstention) on AB 43 yesterday." Everyone was very polite, and Wilmer Carter's capitol staff was especially solicitous. Maybe you'd like to call or email them also:

Email:
Wilmer.Carter@asm.ca.gov

Capitol Office:
State Capitol
P.O. Box 942849
Sacramento, CA 94249-0062
Tel: (916) 319-2062
Fax: (916) 319-2162

District Office:
335 N. Riverside Ave.
Rialto, CA 92376
Tel: (909) 820-5008
Fax: (909) 820-5098

Email:
Nicole.Parra@asm.ca,gov

Capitol Office
State Capitol
P.O. Box 942849
Sacramento, CA 94249-0030
(916) 319 - 2030
(916) 319 - 2130 Fax

Bakersfield Office
601 24th St., Suite A
Bakersfield, CA 93301
(661) 334 - 3745
(661) 334 - 3796 Fax

Hanford Office
321 N. Douty St., Suite B
Hanford, CA 93230
(559) 585 - 7170
(559) 585 - 7175 Fax

Email:
Mike.Davis@asm.ca.gov

Capitol Office:
State Capitol
P.O. Box 942849
Sacramento, CA 94249-0048
Tel: (916) 319-2048
Fax: (916) 319-2148

District Office:
700 State Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90037-1210
Tel: (213) 744-2111
Fax: (213) 744-2122

Be Nice, Do Good.

Bally's Not Working Out?

Joe.My.God links to a New York Post article that reports that Bally Total Fitness is close to filing for bankruptcy. Apparently, Bally's sold Crunch last year for $45 million and their stock has fallen from $8 in June 2006 and is now trading at $0.31, with over $800 million in debt.

I've been a member of Bally's since at least 1994 and now pay something like $12 a month for membership. However, I joined 24 Hour Fitness in 2000 because I wanted more flexibility in the gyms I could go to when I was travelling on the west coast. Now I go to 24 about twice as often as I go to Bally's even though Bally's is about a 5 minutes drive closer.

Bill To Expand Domestic Partnerships Passes State Senate

Carole Migden's SB 11 passed the state senate 23-15 on Monday, before Friday's "cross-over" deadline for bills originating in one house to pass at least one chamber of the state Legislature. SB 11 would amend the definition of domestic partners in California to allow all adult opposite-sex couples to register as domestic partners with the Secretary of State. Current state law restricts domestic partners to same-sex couples of any age or opposite sex couples where one partner is 62 or older.

Of course, the heterosexist supremacists are apoplectic about the bill. Randy Thomasson, a professional homophobe who has filed multiple anti-gay ballot measures with the California Attorney General, said "If SB 11 becomes the law, marriage will be functionally abolished."

Migden says that her reason for expanding marriage is to give an option to heterosexual couples who do not want to participate in a discriminatory institution like marriage which currently bars same-sex couples, a.k.a. the Brangelina position.

The bill moves onto the State Assembly, where it is likely to pass. The Governor, who has already vowed to (again!) veto Mark Leno's Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act (AB 43) which would end marriage discrimination against same-sex couples has not publicly taken a position on ending domestic partnership discrimination against opposite sex couples.

Serena Gets Crunk

Serena williams fait son show!
Uploaded by sportvideos

Oh, Frak! Battlestar Galactica To End After Next Season

Following the producers of Lost by a few weeks, the producers of the best drama on television (Battlestar Galactica) have announced that the fourth season of the award-winning science-fiction show will be the last for the series. Apparently 20 of the final 22 hours of original programming of the series will be devoted to Galactica with a 2-hour movie devoted to Pegasus will be aired this Fall to coincide with the arrival of the 3rd season of BSG on DVD.

For those of us in Los Angeles, there will be a special sneak preview of the fourth season of BSG which is scheduled to air on NBC Universal's SciFi Channel in early 2008 this Wednesday June 6th at 8pm at a free screening (open to the first 500 people) at the Arclight Cinearama Dome at 6360 Sunset Boulevard.

Serena Wins, Venus Loses

David Vincent/ AP	Francois Mori/ AP

Serena Williams beat Dutch Michaella Krajicek 6-3, 6-4 to move into a 4th round clash with Dinara Safina who had a tough 3-set win over slumpingItalian Francesca Schiavone.

Venus Williams ran out of steam in her match against Serbian Jelena Jankovic, losing 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 committing 52 errors and together the two big hitters had a mere 16 winners between them.

Sadly, Gael Monfils of France lost to Argentine David Nalbandian in four closet sets, 7-6(5), 5-7, 6-4, 7-6(5).

Word of the Week: SALTERNS

Recently I have been playing Scrabble online at the Internet Scrabble Club for awhile now. Did you know there are exactly 95 legal 2-letter words? Well, it depends on which word list that you use. I am talking about the TWL98 which contains 169,092 words and is based on the Official Scrabble Players' Dictionary, used in North American and Canadian tournaments.

Anyway, I also downloaded Quackle, a program which was written by an MIT sophomore named Jason Katz-Brown who has been the highest rated Scrabble player in the United States. It's a great program to play scrabble against the computer, against a human or also explore legal words available in a tray. When I got it I asked it what words were available in a ERSTNL A, mis-remembering that list as the most commonly appearing letters in English (apparently it is ETAOIN SHRDLU). However, the program produced a handy list of "bingoes" (7-letter words that receive a 50-point bonus) such as ANTLERS, RENTALS, STERNAL and SALTERN.

A few hours later I was playing scrabble online and as my last word of the game (down by 12 points) I had SLTRNS? with an available A on the board. I played SaLT?RNS across two triple word scores (as well as completing another triple word by playing the S onto hooters to form Shooters) for a total of 146 points. Game over.

What is a Saltern, you may ask (though sadly, in Scrabble what a word means is absolutely immaterial, it's whether the word appears in the word list that counts, and where you can play it on the board for the most points). Here is the definition of saltern from answers.com:

salt·ern (sôl'tərn)
n.
A saltworks.

[Old English sealtærn : sealt, salt; see salt + ærn, house.]

Indeed.

CA-37: Congresswomen Waters and Watson Take Opposite Sides

Reporter John Howard has a story published in Thursday's Capitol Weekly which says that the Congressional Black Caucus will not endorse in the race to replace one of their recently deceased members due to a bitter feud between two of its prominent African American female members: Maxine Waters and Diane Watson.

The Congressional Black Caucus, torn between two major African-American candidates in the special election to replace the late Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald in California's 37th Congressional District, has refused to endorse either candidate.

The decision, in part, stems from an internal political feud between two of California's most visible black members of Congress: Rep. Maxine Waters and Rep. Diane Watson, who split over who should get the Caucus' backing in the June 26 special election. In the end, the Caucus declined to endorse either one in the Long Beach-area race. Waters favors Assemblywoman Laura Richardson and Watson supports Valerie McDonald, the daughter of the late congresswoman. The dispute over the endorsement was marked by heated exchanges involving Waters and Watson.
The Congressional Black Caucus' decision was in sharp contrast to the state Legislature's nine-member Black Caucus, which endorsed Richardson.

Wowsa. Wouldn't you have liked to be a fly on the wall seeing Waters and Watson throw down? It shouldn't be a surprise that the Califonia Black Legislative Caucus would endorse Richardson since she is a member of that organization!

REVIEW: 28 Weeks Later

28 Weeks Later is the sequel to the surprisingly well-made 28 Days Later (2002). The first film was directed by Danny Boyle and starred then-unknown actors Cillian Murphy (Batman Begins) and Naomie Harris (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men's Chest).

The film was made for an estimated $8 million dollars and was already profitable from its United Kingdom release before it jumped the pond and grossed over $45 million more in the United States during the summer of 2003. The film became one of the first to be released in theaters with multiple endings (hopeful, hopeless and ambiguous) all of which are available on the DVD.

None of the principal actors or director return for the sequel, which is usually a decidely discouraging signal. The original's director Executive Produced 28 Weeks Later and personally selected Juan Carlos Fresnadillo who made the intriguing thriller Intacto to direct the sequel.

Surprisingly, the critics have responded with kind words with some calling it "better than the original." At rottentomatoes.com the viewers rate the film more highly than critics (86% to 71%) and the film has taken in over $21 million in three most competitive weekends of the U.S. summer movie-going season.

28 Days Later was an exciting surprise; an unheralded film that comes out of nowhere to entertain, thrill and amaze. 28 Weeks Later arrives as a known, expected quantity but is actually a better film. It has a lesser emotional impact than the first movie because in this version one is not worried about whether the entire human race has been devastated by the "rage virus."

In this film, the rage virus has almost completely exterminated the population of United Kingdom, except for a very small number of survivors. About 6 months after (28 Weeks, get it?) the last infected person died of hunger the United States military has begun returning British citizens to a "heavily fortified Green Zone" in the capital city of the country. (Sound familiar?) There are other metaphorical allusions to the conflict in Iraq after the inevitable new outbreak of the virus (through the deployment of a reasonably plausible plot device: genetic mutation) we get scenes of U.S. troops acting as snipers, patrolling a bombed out urban landscape looking for hidden, dangerous residents (zombies) and using superior technology and firepower.

In the end the heart of the movie is again centered around the safety of two children and the movie does an excellent job of maintaining both the level of suspense and non-stop gory action sequences.

GRADE: A.

NH Governor Signs Civil Unions Bill Into Law

Democratic Governor John Lynch of New Hampshire signed HB 437 into law, making the state the fourth in the Union to enact a civil unions bill, and the first not compelled by a state supreme court to do so. Vermont (1999), Connecticut (2005) and New Jersey (2006) also have civil unions laws in effect. New Hampshire's law will go into effect January 1, 2008. The official press release from the Governor's office reads:

"Dating back to the Abolitionist movement, we in New Hampshire have a long, proud history of taking the lead in opposing discrimination. Today, that tradition continues. Today, we are taking an important step against discrimination. Today, we are acting to protect New Hampshire families," Gov. Lynch said.

"Over the last several months, I have spoken with hundreds of people about this issue, and most of those people support civil unions. Some support civil unions, but feel it may be happening too fast, or too soon. Others oppose civil unions altogether and see it as a threat to marriage.

"I've listened and heard all the arguments. I do not believe this bill threatens marriage. I believe this is a matter of conscience and fairness. And my view is that, it's never too soon to act to prevent discrimination.

"People in committed relationships should not have to worry about visiting a loved one in a hospital, or whether their loved ones will inherit their estate, or the many other legal protections so many of us take for granted," Gov. Lynch said. "How could any one of us look into the eyes of our neighbors, our friends, or our loved ones if we continued to deny them these basic legal protections?

"That is why I am pleased to be here today as we further the interest of fairness, dignity and the strengthening of families.

"That is truly the New Hampshire way," Gov. Lynch said.

Wow.

Direct Proportionality and Gasoline Prices

Ahhh, another example of why Mathematics is Important, Reason #231! Recall the Ideal Gas Law, pV=nRT, which means that the volume V of a gas is directly proportional to the temperature T of that gas held at a fixed pressure. Why is this important? Gasoline!

In an article in the Los Angeles Times on May 9, 2007, "Not just inflated prices but inflated fuel":

The U.S. government defines a gallon of gas this way: At 60 degrees, a gallon is 231 cubic inches. But when fuel is warmer than 60 degrees, the liquid expands. When it's colder, the fuel contracts.

U.S. oil companies and distributors account for temperature when they sell to each other. Wholesale facilities are equipped with devices that adjust volumes to bring the gallon tally in line with the 60-degree standard.

[...]

That equity, however, stops short of retail fuel pumps. Service stations dispense gas and diesel as if every drop is flowing at 60 degrees — and they charge customers as if they are getting government-standard gallons.

[...]

Gasoline expands or contracts 1% for every 15-degree change in the fuel's temperature. Diesel volumes change 0.6% per 15-degree change. The difference seems small, but it adds up fast in California, where fuel temperatures can be much higher than 60 degrees and prices are steep. It's a bigger hit for truckers, whose rigs gulp 20,000 gallons or more of diesel a year.

So, as you think about rising gas prices, recall the principle of direct proportionality from your high school algebra class.

India Hosts "Nigah Queerfest"

The New York Times is running a Reuters report on Nigah Queerfest '07 , a cultural festival highlighting homosexuality being held in New Delhi, India from May 25th to June 3rd. After spending two weeks in India earlier this year I am very interested in public policy involving the world's largest democracy, especially with regards to homosexuality (and other issues like health care, population control, poverty et cetera). India still has a colonial-era law called Section 377 which criminalizes homosexuality with up to 10 years in prison. There have been numerous protests over Section 377 and there is a pending court case attempting to repeal the provision.

Andy at TowleRoad has links to coverage of the Queerfest.

REVIEW: Salud

Mad Professah was invited by a friend (who happens to be the Executive Director of the Center for Health Justice) to see an invitation-only screening of the film ¡Salud! at the Billy Wilder Theater of the Armand Hammer Museum on Monday May 14th at 7pm in Westwood.

The film is an amazingly incisive meditation on the nature of health care around the world. It looks specifically at the case of four particular countries in the global South: Cuba, Honduras, The Gambia and Venezuela. Although it sounds like it might be awfully tendentious and possibly mawkish: a nearly 2-hour documentary on the state of international health care primarily in Spanish, the actuality is an emotionally powerful, thought-provoking experience that lingers with you long after the final talking head has delivered the last rhetorical question: "How long will we treat health care as a commodity instead of as a right?"





GRADE: A+.

Tommy Haas and Marat Safin Shirtless Together

Greg Hernandez over at Out in Hollywood has some great shots of hotties Tommy Haas and Marat Safin in vintage tennis clothes and some more pictures of them wearing very little clothes. Fun :)

Something to do on a Memorial Day when the French Open is basically rained out!

FRENCH OPEN 2007: Venus and Serena Win First Round Matches

Venus Williams beat French teenager Alize Cornet 6-4, 6-3 seconds before the rain came down forcing the third rain delay of Day 2 at Roland Garros.

Serena Williams beat Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova (who took out Venus last year 9-7 in the third set during the first round of the 2006 Australian Open) 5-7, 6-1, 6-1 on Day 1. Serena was down 5-6 (after coming back from 2-5 to level the match 5-5) with Pironkova ready to serve for the first set when a 5-hour rain delay occurred. After that gap, although Serena lost the first set, she won 12 of the last 13 games to win the match.

REVIEW: Providence Restaurant (Los Angeles, CA)

Mad Professah checked out Providence Restaurant (5955 Melrose Boulevard near Vine, 323-460-4170) on Wednesday April 25th. Providence is listed at #35 on the Top 50 restaurants in the United States by Gourmet magazine. We had the 5-course prix fixe meal with wine pairing. In other words, it was a set 5-course meal with a different wine for each course.

Here are some pictures of our meal.

An amuse bouche of carrot ginger soup and shrimp with a crunchy wafer.	bobby’s block island sea scallops with heart of palm, star anise gastrique, applewood smoked bacon.
king salmon (sitka alaska) with kumquats, fennel, baby turnips, black olives, saffron.	japanese kanpachi, pickled plum consommé, shiso leaf, cucumber.
new zealand john dory with crayfish, ramps, lemon espuma, potato.	raspberry, basil, balsamic, graham.

The food was incroyable (incredible). The scallops were the most amazing things I have ever tasted. The dining experience was an absolutely memorable one. The service was insanely attentive. The meal was not cheap (the fixed price for the 5-course meal coupled with a different wine for each course is $110 per person) but it absolutely worth the money to spend about twice as much here as you would at Providence and forego eating at another "so-so" place at half the price.

GRADE: A+.

30th Anniversary of Star Wars

Where were you when you first saw Star Wars? May 25, 1977 was the release date of George Lucas' classic science fiction film. Today is the 30th anniversary. I'm pretty sure I saw it that summer 2 or 3 times. I was already a huge sci-fi fan, having read J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and Isaac Asimov's Foundation series. I think my favourite character was R2-D2.
The first film, officially titled "Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope" has spawned 5 more films which have grossed well over $2 billion at the box office. It was nominated for 10 Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director and won 6.

Carole Migden's Story Changes

A day after it was reported that she was involved in as many as three car accidents last Friday, openly gay State Senator Carole Migden (D-San Francisco) revealed today that she has been undergoing treatment for leukemia for the last decade. Migden is one of the most powerful openly gay elected officials in the state (if not the country), having already served 3 terms in the State Assembly, one term on the State Board of Equalization and is in her first 4 year term in the State Senate.

However, earlier this year openly gay Assemblymember Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), the author of the marriage equality bill, announced that he would be running in the June 2007 primary election against Migden.

It will be definitely interesting to see what impact the overwhelming coverage of the State Senator's recent "erratic driving" activities will have on the race for the emocratic nomination for the 3rd State Senate district (which covers San Francisco, Sonoma and Marin counties).

In a statement Friday, Migden said the accident occurred after she took her eyes off the road while reaching for a ringing cell phone.

But before the crash, the CHP received the calls about Migden's driving as she traveled more than 30 miles east on I-80 from the Bay Area.

"We have drivers calling from apparently down in Berkeley all the way up to where she crashed," CHP Officer Marvin Williford said. "Her driving was just erratic.

"Unfortunately, she crossed three different CHP districts, so by the time we got into position in one area, she was in a different jurisdiction."

Two witnesses who called 911 said Migden glanced off the concrete barrier dividing traffic on I-80, several miles before her accident, the CHP said.

"Based on her (Migden's) statement and the damage to her car, we know that she hit something. We're trying to determine where she hit it," Williford said.

In her statement to officers, Migden said "she did feel she brushed up against something," Williford said, although there is no mention of that in the statement released Friday by the senator's office.

Hmmmmmmmmm!