Rosenbush Cafe

By Henry B. Rosenbush

The Crimson Tide’s thorough domination over the 9th ranked Clemson Tigers was the season’s first big upset. While most experts picked Alabama to lose big it was a reversal as the 24th ranked Crimson Tide started strong and finished with intensity.

The first three offensive plays were runs and Alabama quickly established a rushing attack that Clemson’s defense never stopped. Coach Nick Saban’s highly touted freshmen recruits were not frightened or intimidated kids; sans the hype of a national telecast they all seem to handle the exposure well.

When the Tigers opened the second half with a 96 yard kickoff return for a touchdown the announcers were excited; finally the highly ranked Tigers showed a spark after a first half where the Tide defense held them to a field goal and shut down every aspect of their offense. Senior Quarterback John Parker Wilson led a confident and motivated offensive attack that favored the all important running game to set up a balanced passing game.

Kicker Leigh Tiffin started and ended the scoring with field goals of 54 (career best) and 26 yards, freshman receiver Julio Jones scored his first touchdown, and Wilson, who finished 22 of 30 for 180 yards 2 TDs and rushed for another, looked as relaxed and in charged as Saban could hope for. The Tide caused two turnovers which led to 6 points while never coming close to giving up the football. Aside from 6 penalties for 40 yards (Clemson, 6-43) they played mistake free football.

It was obvious from the kickoff that Alabama came better prepared and three final stats support the Tide’s domination: Time of Possession, 41:13 to 18:47; Number of Plays, 80 - 48; and rushing, 239 - 0. With the first plays all running, Alabama immediately set up a ground game that was so good it forced Clemson to abandon theirs in favor of inconsistent passing. The Tide defense controled the Clemson line of scrimmage mixing so many different looks that Tiger QB Cullen Harper (20-34 188 yards, 1 INT) was never able to establish continuity.

On the opposite side, the Tide offensive line controlled the Clemson defense throughout the game; they never allowed a sack and the tide only had 2 plays for negative yardage. Saban kept fresh bodies in the game, too, with five different rushers handling the ball. Both true freshman Mark Ingram (17 attempts for 96 yards, and a 5.6 yard average) and junior Glenn Coffee (17-90, 5.3) rushed inside the trenches where the battle was won by Alabama from the first rush to the last.

Unlike a number of games in 2006 (Georgia and LSU for starters) when Alabama blew leads and eventually the games the Tide led 13-0 after one, 23-3 at half and 31-10 after 3 quarters, and were never threatened after the exciting kickoff return by C. J. Spiller.

As the Tide prepares for their September 6th home game (pay-per-view, kickoff 6 p.m. CST) against the Tulane Greenwave from Conference USA East the question on everyone’s mind: Can the mixture of freshmen recruits and seasoned vets replicate their complete team effort?

The answer is always made on the playing field and if the Tide brings the same intensity and confidence they could easily meet the top ranked Georgia Bulldogs on September 27th 4-0. They have to defeat Tulane, Western Kentucy (at home) and Arkansas on the road but it isn’t an impossible task.

We often hear in team sports how it is a team effort and the entire Alabama team was prepared for a Clemson team that perhaps believed in their high ranking much like the Tide in 2002 when they were ranked 2nd in the nation going into a road game with UCLA which they lost. At 24, Alabama has the opportunity to earn any higher rankings through the next two home games.

While all the other top teams had easy games where they crushed outmatched opponents only Alabama was given a team picked to win their conference (ACC). Clemson has plenty of questions to answer while Alabama answered the top asked, “How will the freshmen handle the pressure and national televised game?”

They played like veterans and television showcased their talents and determination. It is not impossible, however, for the team to improve with each game, and the players deserve a nice rest before preparing for Tulane. One game does not make a season, but the manner in which Alabama approached the Clemson game is telling: fundamental football with a strong running game to open up the passing.

With the continuous reminder that Saban has a $4 million salary and how long will it take him to mold a national championship roster is boring. Alabama wanted Saban at all costs, much like how the state courted Mercedes Benz convincing them to move their SUV plant to the Tuscaloosa-Vance area. It was a concerted effort to attrack a coach with national championship experience and since the Tide took in over $52 million in revenue in 2007, even woth a 7-6 record, it still seems a wise choice.

More stories, videos and pictures and Cecil Hurt’s column at:
Tide Sports

By Henry B. Rosenbush

Difficult to fathom it has been 45 years since Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s demand for civil rights for black Americans in Washington D.C. On this day, in 1963, 200,000 supporters marched on the nation’s capitol, the civil rights leader gave a stirring speech culminating with the oft repeated sentence:
“I had a dream.”

Much has changed in the last four decades but the human race is far from solving its own problems in reference to racism, hatred and mistrust. That said, I am still proud that we have moved forward; for every step forward there are possibilites of the reverse, but as long as brave men and women stand up for individual rights and freedoms there will be progress.

Silence is never an option.

Dr. King was more than just a civil rights leader and more than a brave man, he was an intellectual who devoted his beliefs to helping others through inspiration. “Now is the time…” to listen again to full speech; it is not just about Afro Americans it is about every American; black, white, female or male.

“Nineteen sixty three is not an end but a beginning.”

Two Thousand and Eight is a continuance. Whether one supports Barack Obama as president, or another candidate, I’m certain Dr. King would appreciate this progress but also realize that even the possible election of a black man to the office of President of the United States is merely a stepping stone towards equality.

Always keep an open mind about how this country was founded. While many founders were slave owners they somehow still managed to draft documents that would eventually open the door towards equality.

Bless Dr. King and all those who still promote non violence; it is difficult to turn the other cheek but life is too sacred and brief to live hatefully. Whenever I hear “We Shall Overcome,” which was sung in synagogues, as well as, black churches, I am stirred emotionally, recalling how all those who preached non violence died at the hands of violent men.

As an Alabama native, the last several minutes of the speech still remind me of what living here was like in the 1950s and 60s and how my childhood friends were black and white. When 1964 and the Civil Rights Act changed everything we were all hopeful. I still endured anti-Semetic in school but rather than learn to hate I learned to move forward and pursue my own dreams of success and enlightenment. I learned to not let hurtful words define my character.

There is still racism and I still hear Jewish slurs from time to time, but as a writer and former journalist whose life revolves around words, I am more aware of the power language and idiom. I learned to accept that I cannot change all injustices, but can at the very least be free to forgive, forget, forge on.

Only through strength, courage and strong moral character can we all be “free at last.”

Reviewed by Henry B. Rosenbush

What would the end of the summer movie season be without at least one good date movie? Amidst the summer blockbusters and inane comedies comes this thoroughly engaging sexy romp from Woody Allen.

Allen has always presented neurotic characters and Vicky Christina Barcelona has plenty of that flaw but balances it nicely with superb acting, gorgeous photography of the Spanish countryside and a wonderful score.

VCB is not the kind of movie that requires deep thought, not that the plot is simple, Allen would never make a film without deeper subtext, but it easy of the eyes, ears and mind.

With an unseen narrator filling in expository information, we are introduced to Vicki (Rebecca Hall) and Christina (Scarlett Johansson) as they arrive for July and August in Barcelona at the home of the former’s distant relative Judy (Patricia Clarkson) and her husband Doug Nash (Kevin Dunn). We learn that both women are talented and very similar except in the areas of love. Without exception, however, the voiceover is the weakest link in the film; bland and much of what is imparted could easily be ascertained by watchful viewers.

Credit Allen the writer with having a roster of professional actors to verbalize his funny and romantic dialogue as we are quickly taken to an artist’s exhibition and introduced, albeit from across the room, to another artist, Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem, this year’s Oscar winner for No Country for Old Men), and some humorous whispered gossip from Judy about a messy divorce and his ex’s rampage culminating in her stabbing him.

Vicky, who is about to marry “Mr. Right” and quite the cynical lass is not impressed, but Christina is immediately intrigued with the handsome artist. Later, in one of the first of many excellent scenes between the trio, Juan, after having been flirting with Christina in a late night restaurant comes over and immediately begins trying to seduce the women. He invites them to Oviedo and promises a weekend in the bucolic town of fine food and wine and lovemaking. Vicki borders on hostility, but does not dissuade the determined and confident painter who flies them down - after much debate between Vicki (against) and Christina (hotly interested) - to Oviedo.

Oviedo, as photographed by Javier Aquirresarobe, captures the beauty of every detail and there is much to enjoy. The soundtrack, with guitar solos by Paca de Lucia and other local music keeps everything upbeat and even in the film’s darker moments, which are few, the score is always positive.

This is after all, a romantic comedy and Allen has constructed a story that touches on friendship and love, desire and longing and regret.

In typical movie fashion, Christina gets food poisoning and Vicki, who has slowly softened to Juan, gets a tour of the town and meets Juan’s father, a poet who has never published as punishment to a world that has still not learned to love. Later, after a guitarist stirs inner yearnings Juan and Vicki make love, off camera, in the grass.

Feeling guilty, the reality-grounded Vicky gets occassional telephone calls from her fiance, Doug (Chris Messina), a status seeking New Yorker who is surface candy, but on the inside is hypocritical and disapproving of Christina’s free-spirited lifestyle. Messina does not play him as mean, but few audience members, especially young women, will be fooled by his bedroom reaction to having learned of a bi-sexual admission from Christina.

After getting over her illness, Christina ends up in bed with Juan and becomes his lover, going as far as to move in with him; Vicki is left on the sidelines, hurt and confused. Later, Doug comes to Barcelona for a token marriage with a bigger more lavish ceremony planned in NYC. There is a standout scene with some NY friends in Barcelona, unaware of Vicki’s secret, talk boringly about big screen TVs and interior decorators. We see the emotions while the couple and her husband are too busy with their interests to notice.

The film moves along humorously and with plenty of passion but little action until about the 45 minute mark when ex-wife Maria Elena (Penelope Cruz) shows up after having tried to commit suicide in a bus terminal. Juan, who is portrayed as likeable, if somewhat of a rogue, cannot let her leave and she moves in with he and Christina.

We have heard stories about her but upon arrival Maria Elena is given plenty of latitude to make us believe her passion and love for Juan is still viable. Something was always missing from their relationship and at this point, the narrative takes a highly intense third act with the bickering Maria Elena and Juan delivering many of the best lines, in Spanish, and an added ménage à trois that threatens the carefree lifestyle Christina has sought.

As with most Woody Allen films, especially in later years, everyone has baggage that contributes towards or against happiness and resolution and VCB is no different. Both women have plenty of unresolved issues that cannot be addressed by film’s closing and the ambiguous ending is on target.

Acting is uniformly good, with Bardem and Cruz in top form with their scenes together always ring true. He is a likeable bohemian and she, while not quite as unhinged as in Abre los Ojos, 1997 brings a level of energy to contrast Christina’s slower pace and Vicki’s more internal performance.

As Vicky and Christina, respectively, Hall and Johansson portray the women has basically good souls whose summer in Spain will no doubt affect their lives profoundly and Clarkson is good, especially in a late reel scene after she has been seen in a romantic posture with her husband’s business partner.

While probably not Oscar winning perfs from Bardem and Cruz, they nonetheless expend plenty of energy and prove beyond the script why they would have been in love originally. Cruz is especially dynamic bringing a hot-blooded role to life with grand movements, tart dialogue and passion. The climax, with Cruz wielding a gun is both amusing and rousing without being frightening.

All tech credits are pro and special note should be given to the many amazing architectural and artistic marvels on display; the Miro Museum, Gaudi creations and a wonderful retro amusement park.

A Spain-U.S. Production; A Weinstein Company (in U.S.), Warner Bros. Intl. (international) release of a Mediapro & Gravier production in association with Antena 3 Films & Antena 3 TV, a Dumaine production. (International sales: Wild Bunch, Paris.) Produced by Letty Aronson, Gareth Wiley and Stephen Tenenbaum; executive producer, Jaume Roures; co-producer, Helen Robin; co-executive producers, Jack Rollins, Charles H. Joffe and Javier Mendez. Directed and written by Woody Allen.

Camera (Deluxe color), Javier Aguirresarobe; editor, Alisa Lepselter; production designer, Alain Bainee; art director, Inigo Navarro; set decorators, Sylvia Steinbrecht, Sol Caramilloni; costume designer, Sonia Grande; sound (Dolby Digital), Peter Glossop; supervising sound editor, Robert Hein; re-recording mixer, Lee Dichter, Sound One; line producer, Bernat Elias; associcate producer, Tedy Villaba; assistant director, Daniela Forn; casting, Juliet Taylor, Patricia DiCerto. (English, Spanish dialogue) Rated PG 13: For Brief Profanity and Adult Themes. Running Time 1:26.

Cast
Juan Antonio - Javier Bardem
Judy Nash - Patricia Clarkson
Maria Elena - Penelope Cruz
Mark Nash - Kevin Dunn
Vicky - Rebecca Hall
Cristina - Scarlett Johansson
Doug - Chris Messina
With: Zak Orth, Carrie Preston and Pablo Schreiber

Reviewed at Carmike The Summit 16, Birmingham, AL August 23, 2008 and Regal Hollywood 20, Greenville, SC, August 24, 2008

Not often that I go to the same movie twice in 24 hours but this weekend I traveled to Birmingham to see Woody Allen’s Vicki Christina Barcelona Saturday night and enjoyed it enough to head further east to take Natalie to see it in Greenville, SC. The soundtrack is amazing and as a Spanish professor, Natalie enjoyed it even more than me as she knew the lyrics.

The film will be reviewed Tuesday night but suffice to say it was in some ways a typical neurotic comedy with gorgerous photography of Barcelona and picturesque Oviedo by Javier Aquirresarobe and top notch acting by Javier Bardem (Oscar winner for No Country for Old Men), Penelope Cruz (Volver), Rebecca Hall (The Prestige) and Scarlett Johansson (Lost in Translation).

A nice date movie with handsome painter Bardem wooing and seducing Vicki and Christina and coming to grips with his ex-wife, Maria Elena (Cruz, even more unhinged than in Abre los Ojos).

eXisTenTiaLNihLisT offers classes devoid of logic and clothing

Before leaving to ride home, in the torrential downpours across eastern Alabama, I perused a Spanish class syllabus for Tala’s Tri-County classes and I was immediately taken with the advanced level these students were about to embark upon. They are advanced students, many of whom cannot be bothered by lectures. Too, bad, because with Tala they will get the entire program and that will keep them occupied, at least until December.

What about some of her past students over 25 years, I thought, especially the ones who could not be bothered with grammar, spelling, punctuation or proper pronunciation? One thing always stands out, my partner is extremely comprehensive.

The first day and these students were about to be scared so badly that all their clothes would strip off and leave the nude students behind to fend for themselves while jeans, shirts, skirts and undergarments had dinner alfresco. Naturally, the umbrellas left, too. Now, free of the restraints of tight pants and thongs, the students were able to immerse themselves.

Gracias. Without clothes there are no places to hide cell phones or Ipods and when everyone is undressed there is less finger pointing so students can concentrate on learning how to say “I’m c-cold,” or “Where can I purchase a suit?” Imagine how fast your recall when you’re enduring horripilation and everyone sees your Escher tattoo is really a stick on as it falls harmlessly off.

Rosetta Stone has not released a version; mine is Naked Spanish 6.9 where students learns Spanish without fear and desnudo.

Features:

6 CD Set of Grammar, Syntax, Pronunciation and How to Casually Strip while engaged in conversation with a fully naked partner.

DVD of Famous Nude Spaniards and Nude Museum Tours of Barcelona.

Full Color 17 Page Guide to Cooking Naked with tips on how not to get burned while stir frying.

Flashing Card Set, Best of Naked Spanish Literature, Art and Naughty Postcards by Penelope Cruz.

and much more….

$179.95 plus shipping and handling. First time buyers receive a free autographed photo of a naked Joan Miró painting Woman and Bird, 1982; cool it guys, Joan was a male dadaist!