The Arts Council
chief, Liz Forgan, says she is alarmed at the absence of arts subjects
from the new Ebacc qualification.
Monday 19 August 2013
Boys will be boys...
Monday 22 April 2013
Luis Suarez....Still at Liverpool next season?
you`ll have to start showing some self control. This is Liverpool Football Club your at now you know!
Even Downing Street are getting involved now!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2013/apr/22/luis-suarez-charged-biting-ivanovic
Get a HI-RES Copy of this image at :
http://www.photobox.co.uk/my/photo?album_id=1038888171&photo_id=3799419651
Friday 25 January 2013
A new league and another new dawn for US women's soccer
The National Women's Soccer League will be the third professional league
for women in the US this century. Will it fare better than its
predecessors?
Here we go again: The United States Soccer Federation has announced
that a new league known as the National Women's Soccer League will
launch in 2013 administered by US Soccer.
The league will begin with eight clubs, the four left over from the recently-extinguished Women's Professional Soccer league (Boston, Chicago, New Jersey, Buffalo) and four new clubs. The names range from overly regional minor league names (Western New York Flash) to cheeky (Portland Thorns FC) to names that have survived all three women's leagues (Boston Breakers). Those clubs will join the Chicago Red Stars, FC Kansas City, Sky Blue FC, Washington Spirit, and the as-yet-unnamed Seattle club.
US Soccer will also subsidize the salaries of up to 24 US women's national team players while the Canadian Soccer Association and Federation of Mexican Football will each do the same for up to 16 players.
Since the US women began their tour celebrating their gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics, the question has lingered: Where will these women play when this is all over? From the moment when the WPS had to suspend its operations, the US national team players have been bullish on the ability of a league to come back. But at the beginning of the post-Olympic tour, when asked where they would be playing next season, the overwhelming response from the players was "I don't know".
For Abby Wambach and Hope Solo, who are past the soccer magic age line of 30, certainly there's been a good deal of soul searching over the last year. Emerging stars like Alex Morgan suddenly had a wrench thrown in their future.
That the North American soccer federations are now willing to subsidize the salaries of its players goes to show just how serious the organisation is about giving their national team stars a home. Canada is slated to host the Women's world cup in 2015, and the thrilling match between Canada and the US during the 2012 London Olympics is still fresh in everyone's mind. The goal now is to carry that excitement over the next three years.
This is the third such attempt in the United States to have a top-level women's soccer league. The Women's United soccer league after the 1999 Women's World Cup was the first attempt at a fully professional league. Attendance and TV ratings didn't meet expectations, and the league burnt through a $40 million nest egg in one year (it was supposed to last five). The WUSA folded before the next Women's World Cup. By the time its successor WPS got up and running all of the first generation stars had retired, even though revival efforts began as soon as the WUSA folded.
The Sports Business journal wrote in 2009 that the WUSA had relied on brand bomb advertising, while the WPS was going to use grassroots promotion. Coming off the heels of the quite successful Women's World Cup in the US, with its picturesque final, it was assumed that getting the word out loudly would attract that same audience. The blast didn't pay off and proved too costly.
The WPS' grassroots effort wasn't a grand success either. The league played in smaller stadiums (5k capacity instead of 10k) and instead of traditional American team names like the Washington Freedom of WUSA there were more European style names (FC Gold Pride) and sponsor-named teams (magicJack).
Having a match of the week on the Fox Soccer channel was supposed to help get the word out about the quality of the league. One hit wonder LA Sol folded despite a championship appearance, the best women's player in the world, and AEG footing part of the bill. Simply having a good product doesn't always mean success in the sports business world.
Elsewhere in the world, for example in England, the women's game is semi-pro and often affiliated with a men's club. Same story with the women's basketball league in America, and yet MLS has not been involved in anything relative to women's soccer.
The downside of a semi-pro league is the necessity for a secondary source of income. Rachel Yankey, who plays for Arsenal Ladies Football Club and was on Team GB at the London Olympics, has worked as a coach in schools. Her teammate Kelly Smith came over and played in the American leagues attaining professional status..........
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/dec/18/us-women-soccer-national-league-launch?INTCMP=SRCH
The league will begin with eight clubs, the four left over from the recently-extinguished Women's Professional Soccer league (Boston, Chicago, New Jersey, Buffalo) and four new clubs. The names range from overly regional minor league names (Western New York Flash) to cheeky (Portland Thorns FC) to names that have survived all three women's leagues (Boston Breakers). Those clubs will join the Chicago Red Stars, FC Kansas City, Sky Blue FC, Washington Spirit, and the as-yet-unnamed Seattle club.
US Soccer will also subsidize the salaries of up to 24 US women's national team players while the Canadian Soccer Association and Federation of Mexican Football will each do the same for up to 16 players.
Since the US women began their tour celebrating their gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics, the question has lingered: Where will these women play when this is all over? From the moment when the WPS had to suspend its operations, the US national team players have been bullish on the ability of a league to come back. But at the beginning of the post-Olympic tour, when asked where they would be playing next season, the overwhelming response from the players was "I don't know".
For Abby Wambach and Hope Solo, who are past the soccer magic age line of 30, certainly there's been a good deal of soul searching over the last year. Emerging stars like Alex Morgan suddenly had a wrench thrown in their future.
That the North American soccer federations are now willing to subsidize the salaries of its players goes to show just how serious the organisation is about giving their national team stars a home. Canada is slated to host the Women's world cup in 2015, and the thrilling match between Canada and the US during the 2012 London Olympics is still fresh in everyone's mind. The goal now is to carry that excitement over the next three years.
This is the third such attempt in the United States to have a top-level women's soccer league. The Women's United soccer league after the 1999 Women's World Cup was the first attempt at a fully professional league. Attendance and TV ratings didn't meet expectations, and the league burnt through a $40 million nest egg in one year (it was supposed to last five). The WUSA folded before the next Women's World Cup. By the time its successor WPS got up and running all of the first generation stars had retired, even though revival efforts began as soon as the WUSA folded.
The Sports Business journal wrote in 2009 that the WUSA had relied on brand bomb advertising, while the WPS was going to use grassroots promotion. Coming off the heels of the quite successful Women's World Cup in the US, with its picturesque final, it was assumed that getting the word out loudly would attract that same audience. The blast didn't pay off and proved too costly.
The WPS' grassroots effort wasn't a grand success either. The league played in smaller stadiums (5k capacity instead of 10k) and instead of traditional American team names like the Washington Freedom of WUSA there were more European style names (FC Gold Pride) and sponsor-named teams (magicJack).
Having a match of the week on the Fox Soccer channel was supposed to help get the word out about the quality of the league. One hit wonder LA Sol folded despite a championship appearance, the best women's player in the world, and AEG footing part of the bill. Simply having a good product doesn't always mean success in the sports business world.
Elsewhere in the world, for example in England, the women's game is semi-pro and often affiliated with a men's club. Same story with the women's basketball league in America, and yet MLS has not been involved in anything relative to women's soccer.
The downside of a semi-pro league is the necessity for a secondary source of income. Rachel Yankey, who plays for Arsenal Ladies Football Club and was on Team GB at the London Olympics, has worked as a coach in schools. Her teammate Kelly Smith came over and played in the American leagues attaining professional status..........
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/dec/18/us-women-soccer-national-league-launch?INTCMP=SRCH
Thursday 24 January 2013
Hip-hop: it's a woman's world too
Mainstream hip-hop music has tended to be male dominated, with some notable exceptions. Despite what we might see on the surface, the hip-hop community is in fact filled with amazing female artists from all over. If you are asking "where are all the female MCs at?", then you just aren't looking.
World Hip Hop Women: From The Sound Up is the latest mixtape project from Nomadic Wax and World Hip Hop Market. The new mixtape, which is available for free download, seeks to highlight the female voices and causes that are always present but less often heard. It is the brainchild of Detroit's DJ LaJedi and World Hip Hop Market founder Greg Schick, and features artists from 15 countries – joining Iranian MCs living in Washington DC to Zimbabwean artists in the "Sunshine City", Harare. It celebrates both Cuban heritage and the Palestinian struggle, alongside exclusive Spanish dancehall, and new dubstep sounds of South Africa. World Hip Hop Women are fierce emcees spittin' bars that transcend language barriers, cultural differences, and gender bias, expertly mixed together by DJ LaJedi.
"I salute every artist who contributed to the mixtape," said LaJedi, "for their courage and commitment to the spirit of creativity. Many of these women are carving paths where there are none. They embody 'firsts' of all kinds: MC Black Bird – first female to release a hip-hop record in Zimbabwe; Soultana – member of Tigress Flow, first all-female hip-hop crew in Morocco; Masia One – first female to be nominated for Canada's Much Music Award; Shadia Mansour – the first lady of Arab hip-hop; MC Melodee – Holland's leading lady in hip-hop; DJ Naida – Zimbabwe's #1 female DJ, and on and on. They are assuming leadership roles in their native communities and beyond through endeavours that prove their conscious attitudes regarding love, truth, peace, freedom of expression and social justice."..........
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2013/jan/24/hip-hop-woman-world?INTCMP=SRCH
Sunday 20 January 2013
Tuesday 15 January 2013
2012: how did it taste to you?
For me, this was the year of pimped dirty food, as burgers, chicken wings and hot dogs all went gourmet.
- The Observer,
- As it stutters to its end, let me ask: how did 2012 taste for you? Twenty years from now what flavour would catapult you back to the year we hosted the Olympics, Jimmy Savile turned out to be exactly the sort of man so many of us thought he was and a Tory MP nobody liked resigned her party whip by going into the jungle? For me it is a mixture of tomato puree, brown sugar and a hit of vinegar and chilli. Or barbecue sauce, as it's known. For 2012 was the year of pimped dirty food, when a deepening recession sent skilled cooks heading towards the gutter, the better to look up at the stars.
There were long smoked ribs and vajazzled hot dogs and chicken wings smeared with the salty hit of Korean chilli sauce. There were pulled pork buns, and slabs of pork belly, long braised, quick seared, and wrapped up with more Korean hot sauce and the crunch of spring onions. There was butter milk fried chicken. There was an epidemic of filthy burgers in glazed brioche buns. In 2012, if eating it didn't require you to mop your wrists with 14 tissues afterwards it wasn't real food. Come 2032, if you give me a hockey puck of minced prime Aberdeen Angus, pink at its heart, a crisp rasher of dry cured streaky, and a slice of west country cheddar with such a tang it's almost on the turn, I'll be right back there. Which is to say, right back here.
Not everybody can use flavour as an access point for memory. The crown prince of all this is supposed to be Marcel Proust, who apparently conjures up an entire universe from one Madeleine and a cup of weak tea. It's a nice literary device, but I've never completely believed it. You have to be constantly hungry to use food as a route back to experience, not the sort of person known for coughing plaintively into a handkerchief then checking it for spotting.....- http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/dec/08/2012-year-in-food
Arts Council chief accuses Gove of abandoning cultural education
Education secretary risks leaving a generation exposed and robbing children of their birthright, warns Liz Forgan
In a lecture on Tuesday at the British Museum to mark the end of her tenure as chair of the arts-funding body, Liz Forgan will say the education secretary risks "robbing a generation of its birthright and failing in the duty we all have to continue our culture".
She will say: "Just as we let a whole generation lose the capacity to cook so we are in danger of making the same break in the transmission of our cultural language."
In her speech, titled A Farewell to Arts, Forgan will express alarm at the absence of arts subjects from the Ebacc, the new qualification at 16 awarded to pupils who have gained GCSE grades A-C in five subject areas: maths, English, two sciences, languages and the humanities. By excluding subjects such as art, design, music, dance and drama from the Ebacc, she argues, "a big red signal is hoisted saying with total clarity, 'We don't care'".
She will note that 15% of schools have dropped one or more arts subjects since the Ebacc was introduced.
The lack of arts subjects on the Ebacc has........
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2013/jan/15/arts-council-chief-gove-education
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