I need a minute. (Deep breaths.) A jazz LEGEND is coming to Springfield. Soon. And that's not all. Click the link. You won't regret it.

This might be one of the better musical lineups we've seen for the Juanita K. Hammons Hall for the Performing Arts in some time, if mostly for a one-group coup. It starts with Gordon Lightfoot on October 4, and if that doesn't tickle your fancy, wait one night. The Dave Brubeck Quartet is coming, famous for his catalog of jazz songs but legendary for this one:

That's a 1961 performance of "Take Five," off the album Time Out--that's Brubeck on piano--and you'll get to hear it and so many more of his classics live on October 5... and the list goes on...

Bela Fleck and the Flecktones will be there December 5, along with now-regular shows by Jim Brickman and Michael Martin Murphy December 6 and 11, respectively. Big Smith returns, as well, for another bluegrass-and-barbecue extravaganza on January 31. The season ends May 3 with the annual President's concert, this year combining the poetry of Walt Whitman with the music of Ralph Vaughan Williams.

But most importantly, at least to this jazz-loving schlub, is DAVE FRIGGIN' BRUBECK. Whoa, blood pressure, DeRosh... I need to lie down.

In terms of scenery, this trip wasn't up to par as the last two. Most of the route is pretty barren. I took a little detour again and took the Historic Route 66. I don't know much about the history of this road, except that it was one of the major highways going from the East to the West, and also that Sonic's largest drink size is named after it. While driving through Route 66, there were parts of it so empty that I could really rip it and test out the speed of my car. I broke my previous personal record of fastest speed and reached 135 mph. However, as soon as I saw that mpg meter drop like flies, I started to cry internally and didn't have the balls to stay up there that long, I think maximum 5 seconds or so. In the little town of Seligman was a bunch of Route 66 tourist spots and shops. I am quite sure this was the city that inspired the location in Pixar's "Cars." Would you believe that there was even tumbleweed passing by in front of my on the road? Right before I was heading into Nevada I saw a sign pointing to Lake Mojave so I took a slight detour through a winding road, all downhill, for about 2 or 3 miles. The Lake was nice, but incredibly hot at the same time. Next stop was the Hoover Dam, which was somewhat of a disappointment. It wasn't as big or as beautiful as I had imagined, and they seriously charge you left and right for everything, from parking, to exhibits, to tours. One interesting tidbit: if you are leaning over the edge of the dam, there is a huge updraft, and if you pour a little bit of water out of your bottle over the edge, the water will literally float up in forms of little bubbles. If you toss a penny in front of you over the edge, it will float up and fly back behind you. Pretty cool effect, which I wished I caught on camera. Oh well, here are the trip stats:

Distance: 246.9 miles
Average Speed: 53.5 mph
Moving Time: 4 hours 36 minutes
Total Time: 6 hours 24 minutes
Average Mileage: 29.0 mpg

Yep they made my week a lot better by winning this one ! Well done girls !!!

Originally Aired: 1/15/2008

Meet the men and women behind some of your favorite companies, including Cold Stone Creamery, The Container Store and Christian Louboutin.

4  6  6  Williams/Williams    
         6  4  1  Bondarenko/Bondarenko

                                                   USA                                 UKR

Aces:                                                7                                             1
Double Faults:                                  10                                            5

First Serve:                                      58 %                                       68 %
1st serve pts won:                           77 %                                       51 % 
2nd serve pts won:                          46 %                                       62 %
Break pts won:                                26 %                                       30 %

The USA, will at least have another silver medal, and probably will have a gold one. So Sweet !

After dropping the first set by 64, Serena and Venus kept the pressure high and went on to take the next set by 6-4. In the tird set it seemed that the tone was set, a high pace from the Williams' side, resulting into a breezy 6-1.

[2] Serena Williams/Venus Williams d. [6] Alona Bondarenko/Kataryna Bondarenko 46 64 61

Stats are here.

In the final they will play, China or Spain. I'm not gonna write their names yet. Too much work.

Men's Fitness Magazine, says that Serena Williams is one of the sexiest female athletes in the world. And Hell yeah, I do agree on that. 

Also on these pages, you can read about whom Serena would like to date, what she likes a guy to do for her, what she is all about, and much more.

Click the magazine pages below, to read.  

6  6  Williams/Williams    
  4  0  Vesnina/Zvonareva *

                                                   USA                                 RUS

Aces:                                                5                                             1
Double Faults:                                   4                                             4

First Serve:                                      60 %                                       63 %
1st serve pts won:                           72 %                                       50 % 
2nd serve pts won:                          68 %                                       47 %
Break pts won:                                44 %                                         /

Serena and Venus Williams started the match out fast, with powering from all sides of the court. They managed to win the first set with 1-break. In the second set, they both started out extremely aggressive with directly taking a 3-0 lead. They however, didn't stop to bagel and take the second set by 60.

[2] Serena Williams/Venus Williams d. Elena Vesnina/Vera Zvonareva 64 60.

Stats are here.

Tomorrow they will play their semifinal against the Bondarenko sisters. This match will probably take place on show court 2 at 17:00 [GMT+08]

The Williams sisters got safely through to the quarters of the Olympics Tennis Doubles Event. Luckily, Now I have something left to watch at, or the Beijing 2008 Olympics would be even worse than the Athens 2004.

Both having lost in the quarters of the single's event, didn't seem to be bothered much, and just went straight onto the doubles, to win the first set by 75. In the second set, they pushed and sealed the higher pace-tempo and won it with 62.

S. Williams/V. Williams d. A. Morita/A. Sugiyama 75 62 in 1h13. Stats are here.

Next they will be facing a Russian Roulette, lol, Vera Zvonareva/Elena Vesnina. The match will be played last on Show Court 2, probably within the next 30 minutes.

C'mon Team Williams !

Today was easily one of the best days of my life. I have a feeling I'm going to be saying that again when I drive the Pacific Coast Highway (CA-1), but for now, this is on the top of the list. Heading out of Phoenix, the scenery was beautiful (again). Each day the scenery gets more and more dramatic, making the first trip from Austin to El Paso seem absolutely lame. I realize that I enjoy being out on the road more, than exploring a city (at least for now). The adrenaline I get from driving up and down long swooping mountain roads and seeing large peaks and valleys all around me while my ears pop from all the altitude changes is hard to describe, but it's up there as one of the best feelings you can get in life. You see a huge mountain ahead of you, and then you start focusing on the turns, and the next thing you know, you see this huge mountain in your rear view mirror, and you think to yourself, "Holy ****, did I seriously just cross that?!" Yea, that's the feeling. Seeing a lot of blown tires on the road wasn't comforting though. While I head west (well north today) and see the massive lands before me, I gain a lot of respect on the pioneers who braved these lands on wagons. Wagons! I have no idea how long it would take them (as I never finished the game Oregon Trail), but major props. It gets me into thinking about how we are on the brink of a new pioneering era, to the moon and to Mars. I've always hoped that I would be alive to see that come into fruition, and I still do. I left Phoenix in the morning, heading out to the Grand Canyon. But on the way, I made a detour through Sedona, as recommended by Bilal. Am I glad I made that decision. The city of Sedona is interesting, being that it's built randomly through a small canyon. It's like a hidden resort town in the middle of nowhere. The best part of it was the AZ-89 highway, which winds up and down on narrow roads through forests and cliffs. Driving this road top down while "obeying" the 35 mph speed limit feels exactly like a video game. Here's a portion of the highway so you get the idea of what it was like:

It started to rain while I left Sedona, which sucked, cause I just washed the car. I finally did end up getting to the Grand Canyon, and paid the $25 fee to get in. One word: Massive. I mean, it's well known the G.C. is humongous, and one look at the map will tell you this. You see photos and videos all the time. But none of these do it justice. You cannot begin to imagine how big this place is until you get there. That's when you realize how insignificant you are compared to the sheer massiveness that is the Grand Canyon. G.C., I bow down to you. As the sun set on the horizon, strong winds suddenly blew through the canyon. It was almost as if the sun was holding the winds back, it was almost instantaneous. And the wind smelled like lotion you would find at Bath and Body Works. This was just a day trip for me, but mark my words, I am definitely coming back to make this a full blown vacation, exploring it by hiking, by boat, by helicopter, and camping. I am now in a Super 8 motel in Williams, an hour from the Canyon. An annoying thing happened on my way to Williams: I was filling up my gas at a station, and the pump must've been broken because it didn't stop when my tank was full, and gas started pouring out of the tank and onto my car. I caught it 2 seconds after. Trip stats:

Distance: 299.4 miles
Average Speed: 50.3 mph
Moving Time: 5 hours 56 minutes
Total Time: 11 hours 57 minutes (so long b/c I was at the Canyon)
Average Mileage: 28.3 mpg

James Blake celebrates his shock quarterfinal victory over top seed Roger Federer in Beijing.

The outgoing world number one was unable to find his rhythm in their quarterfinal clash, slipping to a 6-4 7-6 loss to Blake, who will now face Chile's Fernando Gonzalez in the last four.

Gonzalez beat Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu in straight sets while Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic will face each other in the other semifinal.

In the women's singles, fourth seed Serena Williams also exited at the quarterfinal stage, losing 3-6 6-4 6-3 to Russian Elena Dementieva.

She was then joined on the sidelines by Wimbledon champion Venus, who went down 7-5 7-5 to Li Na of China in their last eight match.

The home crowd erupted with the biggest roar of the tournament when Li hit a winner on match point. She gained a single break in each set to pull off a massive upset as Venus misfired on her forehand.

Earlier, Serena, beaten by her sister in the Wimbledon final, was no match for fifth seed Dementieva, despite a brief rally in the deciding set.

She bravely staved off two match points as she trailed 5-2 in the deciding set, but Dementieva held at love in the next game, sealing the victory when Williams pushed a volley wide.

Minor consolation for the Williams duo is that they remain in contention for a doubles medal and play Ayumi Morita and Ai Sugiyama of Japan in a second round match on Friday.

The start of the tennis schedule had been delayed by over three hours due to a series of heavy downpours in Beijing.

Federer, who is enduring the worst season of his career, was broken when serving for the first set and crushed 7-2 in the second-set tie-break, ending his bid for a first Olympic medal.

It was Federer's third defeat in six matches since losing his five-year Wimbledon crown. The 27-year-old Swiss will be replaced by Nadal on Monday after four-and-a-half years as world number one.

Blake, wearing a red headband to go with his white shirt and blue shorts, started with intent and Federer needed a service winner to stave off a break point in game eight.

The American earned another chance at 5-4 when Federer went long after a pulsating rally. The Swiss then produced an incredible leaping backhand from behind the baseline but dunked his next shot into the net to go a set down.

Federer lacked his usual aggression, looking content to rally and misfiring with the serve and forehand. Blake capitalized by forcing three break points in game two of the second set, going ahead when Federer put a backhand long.

The scare seemed to spark Federer into action and he broke back at 1-3 when Blake swiped a backhand into the tramlines.

As tension mounted, Federer held off Blake in two service games to force the tie-break. But the aggressive Blake, pummeling the Swiss with his big forehand, raced to a 4-1 lead.

He put away his first match point when Federer's service return went long, dropping to his knees and screaming in delight. Blake had lost all eight of their previous matches, winning only one set in five years.

The American missed the 2004 Games during a traumatic spell when he broke his neck, lost his father to cancer and developed shingles. Federer finished fourth in 2000 but was shocked in round two four years ago early in his reign as world number one.

After the delays, it was past midnight local time when Nadal thrashed Austria's Jurgen Melzer 6-0 6-4 and Djokovic saw off Gael Monfils of France 4-6 6-1 6-4.

HERE

SUSPENDED TILL TOMORROW

Venus Williams also lost her singles QF at the Olympics Tennis Event. Li Na playing a brilliant match, and yes, also helped by the worst tennis-crowd in history, which clearly don't have respect for any player, by cheering while the points are still being played.

However it wasn't Na li's fault, she was playing great, and so was Venus, although, she couldn't keep up her high level for long, by mixing superb winners with stupid errors.

Na Li d. Venus Williams 75 75 in 2h06.

Today, Is clearly not my best day, and certainly not Serena's. After starting very fierce and focused to obtain a 3-0 lead, Dementieva was able to get her first game, to come back to 3-1. But it didn't help much, since serena took the first set 6-3 in 30 min.

The second set, Serena started a bit nervous, but held tough to earn a 4-2 lead. However, after that, she completely went out of control to lose the set with 4-6.

The 3rd set was one big mess, Serena Williams, the far superior player of the 2, wasn't able to do anything right, to fall behind 5-0. She then regrouped to hold, and break back, saving a few matchpoints along the way. But in the end Double-Fault-Queen-Dementieva, was extremly lucky in the end to serve out the match.

Oh well, sometimes Dementieva needs to be lucky, but seriously, Serena Williams should have won it and sent her home with 2 sets, but no worries, she'll crash out tomorrow, big time ! ;-)

And also, Chinese lines men/women are extremely blind and shouldn't be used in any tournament, because their eyes are too small, and they can't see accurate at all! This was easy to be seen on the television, since many balls landed inches behind the baseline !!!!!!!!!

Elena Dementieva d. Serena Williams 36 64 63 in 2h05.

Calendar
July 4th – School Closed
July 9th – Water Play Day
July 16th – Take a (pretend) Vacation Day
Aug. 6th – Cloud Gazing Day
Aug 8th – School Closed – Teacher Prep Day
Aug 9th – Texarkana Child Care Conference
Aug. 13th - Williams Silly Circus
Aug. 15th – Last Day Summer School
Aug. 18 -22nd School closed
Aug. 21st – Teacher Inservice
Aug. 24th – Meet the Teacher, 4 - 6 p.m.
Aug. 25th – First Day of School

   [4] Serena Williams vs [5] Elena Dementieva

4 - 1

2) CC, 2nd match, +/- 18:00 [GMT+08 Beijing]

[7] Venus Williams vs Na Li

0 - 0

3) SC2, 4th match, 21:00 [GMT+08 Beijing]

[2] Serena Williams/Venus Williams vs Ayumi Morita/Ai Sugiyama

After starting the match with a high tempo and directly breaking Alizé Cornet, she went into a games losing streak, she broke her racquet along the way, and was able to get back to 3-5, but eventually lost the set by 6-3.

In the next set Serena Williams started with a revenge of winners, and hardly losing any points on serve, she was able to serve out that set by 6-3. She only lost 2 points on her 1st serve, and hitted 3 aces.

The third set was a bit mixed, with Serena perfectly serving, but making a lot more errors on the return games. Alizé Cornet was getting frustrated and tired in the end, shouting a few " merde " swears right up in the air. Serena won the match when Alizé Cornet hitted a forehand long.

[4] Serena Williams d. [15] Alizé Cornet 36 63 64 in 1h54.

Detailed stats of the match can be found here.

Next up, Serena Williams will face Elena Dementieva.

Venus Williams, had no problem what-so-ever to dispatch Victoria Azarenka. She took the match 63 62 in 1h10. Earning her the QF place, 2 matches left from an eventual all Williams-Sisters-Olympics-Final.

[7] Venus Williams d. [12] Victoria Azarenka 63 62

Find the detailed match stats here.

Venus Williams will next face, Na Li.

[4] Serena Williams vs [15] Alizé Cornet  

1 - 0

2] 2nd match, SC 2, +/- 18:00 [GMT+08 Beijing]

       [7] Venus Williams vs [12] Victoria Azarenka 

0 - 0

Wts: Luke Waldrup, William Sims

Essentially the teams are saying that this is going to be a fast track, like a Monza, and not slow like most street circuits are. I wasn’t too excited about this at the beginning of the season, I have to admit. Mostly this was down to the fact that I have watched other street races on television and have been less than impressed. But this one could be different. For starters it features a very high speed section along the harbor front and contains no less than 23 corners! Most tracks feature 12 to 15, but this is almost double. And this is why it will be exciting, not just on Sunday either. Friday practice will be something to watch for once because everyone will be scrambling to get out right away and see what the track it like.

At least I hope they do. With so much traffic out there on Friday we could see a mix of fast and slow people all running around and creating all sorts of trouble. This could also really shuffle the board up some, though not too much. Whoever adapts to the track the fastest (usually Lewis unfortunately) will be the one to watch. But there may be other surprises too. Many of the teams have been scouting the locations for many months already and may be fairly familiar with the way that the turns go at least. Other teams have even launched their cars on the track (McLaren in 2007) and have probably had time to get a better look than others. Some teams have also programmed the track into their computer systems and loaded the data into simulators (Williams) for the drivers to try their hand at a game version of the same track. Will any of this make any real difference? I would say some, but there is nothing like seeing the actual track for yourself and knowing definitively how much runoff there is and where all the bumps are.

I really don’t know what to expect from this track, but I will say again, that I am excited. After seeing the layout and watching a preliminary run around the track in a slower car, I can tell you that it may get a little hairy out there at some point. Driving an F1 car around a fast track with 20+ odd corners on any day is a daunting task; doing it on a track that on one has ever driven before, should add up to a monumental challenge.

Here’s to the Valencia street circuit and the European Grand Prix. Hopefully this three week break will have energized a tiny red team from Maranello into doing something great (like a nice 1-2 finish). Hopefully it will be a great weekend.[gallery]