“St. Patrick's Day made in the USA : Our green-filled ... - Cleveland Plain Dealer” plus 3 more

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• St. Patrick's Day made in the USA : Our green-filled ... - Cleveland Plain Dealer
• Campaign urges black donors to step up - PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
• Arizona Wildcats fall to UCLA in Pac-10 Tournament - AZCentral.com
• When puppets dance: Joe Goode Performance Group adds ... - Cleveland Plain Dealer

St. Patrick's Day made in the USA : Our green-filled ... - Cleveland Plain Dealer Posted: 11 Mar 2010 09:00 PM PST By John Petkovic, The Plain Dealer March 12, 2010, 12:01AM MORE ST. PATRICK'S DAY A Cleveland-style pub guide Only in America ... it's St. Patrick's Day -- at least as we've come to know it. The traditions surrounding the religious-holiday-meets-expression-of-pride-meets-party-hearty-marathon have come a long way since a shepherd named Maewyn Succat became the patron saint of Ireland. So much so that a Dubliner like Declan Synnott couldn't believe his eyes when he celebrated his first St. Patrick's Day in America. "It was a culture shock," says Synnott, co-owner of the Charles Stewart Parnell Pub in Cleveland Heights. "In Ireland, you go to church and spend the day with your family. In America, it's a big party." The party comes with all sorts of Irish traditions. You know, like corned beef. "I never knew that was an Irish tradition, at least while I lived in Ireland," says Synnott, who came to America in 1994. "I always thought it was a Jewish thing." Well, it was -- until New Yorkers co-opted it into St. Patrick's Day. "My mom thinks it's hysterical," says Eileen Sammon, a first-generation Irish-American and co-owner of Stone Mad pub in Cleveland. "She never even had corned beef until she moved to America." That hasn't stopped mom from cooking for the pub's St. Patrick's Day celebration. And, yes, Sheila Sammon makes corned beef -- as well as Old World St. Paddy staples such as Irish stew and soda bread. Green beer is the line in the sand for many Irish, though. "Why ruin a perfectly good Irish beer?" Synnott says. "There's a reason Guinness isn't green." Ah, but everyone loves a parade -- even if it, too, is an American creation. Seeing it was a culture shock for Irish expat Brendan Ring, owner of Nighttown in Cleveland Heights. "I moved to America on March 16, 1984," says Ring. "So the next day, I took the subway to Manhattan to see the parade." At first, he felt a little confused. "I didn't know what was going on when I saw a black man on the train with his hair dyed green -- I never even saw an Irishman with green hair," says Ring. "But when I walked outside and saw a sea of green in this massive parade, I realized that I wasn't a foreigner anymore: We're all Irish on St. Patrick's Day." We're all Irish in no small part because of these traditions -- created in America and embraced as part of St. Patrick's Day: Corned beef and cabbage: Yes, the latter is an Irish staple. The former? Not until Irish-American working-class folks embraced the inexpensive meat. In Ireland, the traditional meat remains pork shoulder. Green rivers: Dublin? Try Chicago, 1962. That's when city workers released 100 pounds of green vegetable dye into the Chicago River. Parades: The first St. Patrick's Day parade rolled out in New York in 1862. The Irish -- in Ireland, that is --came around to embracing the hoopla in the 1990s. The 2009 Dublin parade boasted fireworks, bands and 675,000 onlookers. You'd almost think that you were in America. Shamrocks: St. Patrick used the three-leaf plant to explain the Holy Trinity -- centuries before shamrocks became American bar decor. Leprechauns: In Celtic folktales, they're considered tricksters and cranks. Which predates their rebirth, in America, as lords of cereal and happy-go-lucky mascots. Irish pub madness: Purely an American creation -- and not just because there aren't any "Irish pubs" in Ireland. (They just call them pubs.) Pubs in Ireland didn't even open for St. Paddy's Day until the 1970s, because it was considered a religious holiday. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Campaign urges black donors to step up - PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW Posted: 11 Mar 2010 08:53 PM PST College students in Pittsburgh will use their hands and feet to get out the word that Pennsylvania needs more black organ donors. "Stepping" blends dance and chant with rhythmic slaps as a means of storytelling that is a tradition in black fraternities and sororities. The decades-old art form will be the centerpiece of an event at 8 tonight in the August Wilson Center for African American Culture, Downtown. "Step Up to Speak Up" is part of a statewide Donate Life campaign by the Department of Health through its two organ procurement organizations -- Gift of Life in Philadelphia and the Center for Organ Recovery and Education, or CORE, in Pittsburgh. It aims to raise awareness about the importance of organ and tissue donation for blacks and to inspire more blacks to become donors. "I was unaware of the statistics ... and the need in the African-American community until recently," said Victoria Byrd, 20, who heads New Beginnings Ministries, a religion-based student organization at Duquesne University that features choir, step and mime ministries. Byrd, a junior, and two other step performers will participate. "This is something that we as young leaders have the opportunity to address," she said. Blacks constitute 11 percent of the state's population but 32 percent of Pennsylvanians awaiting organ transplants. Of 8,061 people on waiting lists for organs in Pennsylvania, 2,551 are black, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing. Nearly all blacks on the lists -- 89 percent of them -- are awaiting kidney transplants. Blacks make up 30 percent of the nation's dialysis population, a trend that is mirrored in the Pittsburgh area, said Dr. Jerry McCauley, medical director for the kidney and pancreas transplant program at the Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. "The rate of organ donation among African-Americans has gone up some recently, and that's good ... but there's still limitations on the use of certain organs because of the histories of hypertension, diabetes and other kidney diseases in the community," said McCauley, who chairs the American Society of Transplantation's Diversity and Minority Affairs Committee. Many blacks stay on waiting lists for organs longer than whites because of the difficulty of matching tissues and because blacks generally cannot afford health care comparable to whites, McCauley said. Some patients wait five years for a match. Jamiliah Beverly, 14, of Garfield has waited 10 years to receive a bowel, liver and pancreas transplant. To raise awareness about her case, students carried a torch for her through the Torch for Life program organized by Step By Step Organ Transplant Association, a Canadian nonprofit. "There's a huge gap between the need and the people who actually receive organs they need," said Holly Bulvony, a CORE spokeswoman. She said people donating and receiving organs do not need to be of the same race, but the likelihood of successful transplants increases among members of the same ethnic and racial groups. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Arizona Wildcats fall to UCLA in Pac-10 Tournament - AZCentral.com Posted: 11 Mar 2010 08:53 PM PST UCLA got Reeves Nelson back just in time. A week ago at Arizona, the Bruins blew a 14-point lead and lost without their tough-nosed freshman. He returned Thursday after missing four games, scoring 18 points and grabbing 11 rebounds in UCLA's 75-69 victory over the Wildcats, a Pac-10 Tournament quarterfinal between two powerhouses that once ruled the league but have struggled this season. The loss virtually ended Arizona's nation-best streak of 25 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances, though with a winning record, the Wildcats could land in the NIT. "Unfortunately, it's not the NCAA Tournament, but we're going to take what we can get," junior Jamelle Horne said. Slideshow: Pac-10 Tournament Unless they can win the tournament, the Bruins likely aren't going anywhere except back to Westwood to contemplate how losing so many of their best talent to the NBA draft did them in. Kevin Love would have been a junior this season, but he jumped to the NBA. Nelson is no Love, but he is the Bruins' only solid inside presence offensively. "He has great strength," coach Ben Howland said. "When he has the ball, it's very hard to wedge it from him." Nelson has been the gritty heart-and-soul of the Bruins all season, diving for loose balls and inflicting injury on himself. Wearing protective glasses, he played for the first time after missing four games with a slight retinal tear in his left eye. "My legs were all right. When I first came in, they were really tired, but I got my second wind pretty quickly," he said, his only complaint being the glasses he worn on loan from the Los Angeles Lakers. "They fog up sometimes. The nose piece falls out sometimes, and that's annoying. I just tried not to focus on the goggles." Howland said, "He hates them." Michael Roll led the Bruins with 19 points and Nikola Dragovic added 18, extending their careers for at least another game. "As I was telling the guys, 'I'm just really not ready to go home,'" Roll said. "Being out there is fun." The Bruins (14-17) still have a shot at trying to improve what is their worst record since 2003-04, Howland's first season in Westwood. They advanced to a semifinal Friday against the winner of the game between top-seeded California and No. 8 Oregon. Nic Wise scored 16 points and Derrick Williams added 14 for Arizona (16-15), which lost in the quarterfinals for the third consecutive year. The Wildcats salvaged NCAA Tournament appearances the last two years, extending their streak thanks mostly to the prestige built by the Pac-10. With a roster dominated by underclassmen, their chances of making it again seemed unlikely. "Everybody knew from the beginning of the season that it would be tough. We barely made it last year, so it would be even tougher this year," Wise said. "It's just been a great accomplishment, and it's tough to have it end this year." Arizona's NCAA tourney streak began in 1985 under Lute Olson, and ended with first-year coach Sean Miller, who noted he was 16 and "just learning how to drive" when the run began. "Any coach that comes to Arizona is going to find he's a paranoid coach," said Miller, who arrived in Tucson in April to find Wise on the fence about returning for his senior season. "The reason I came to Arizona is to rebuild our program. We have a possibility to get a NIT bid. It's a terrific tournament. I feel very, very good about what we've been able to accomplish." Lamont Jones is a freshman, but he came to Arizona fully aware of the streak. "That's what everybody talks about," he said. "That's the history of the program and the culture of the program, and we just have to understand that. Unfortunately, we're not going to make it this year, but I guarantee we're going to get back there next year." It's not just Arizona and UCLA that stumbled this season. The entire Pac-10 has fallen down nationally, and after getting six teams into the NCAA tournament each of the last two seasons, the league will be fighting to have two this time. No schools better illustrate the league's current woes than Arizona and UCLA, which have won a combined seven Pac-10 tourney titles, with the Wildcats taking four in a row during one stretch. Instead of playing for another title, though, the fourth-seeded Wildcats and No. 5 Bruins were relegated to an afternoon quarterfinal game in a half-empty Staples Center that had more Arizona fans than those rooting for the local Bruins. Comedian Bill Murray, sporting a red visor over his spiky white hair, was among the Wildcat boosters. His son Luke is a graduate assistant on Miller's staff. Arizona got to 58-55 with 7:52 remaining on two free throws by Solomon Hill. But the Bruins kept making free throws — they hit 77 percent in the second half — and Malcolm Lee hit a big 3-pointer to push their lead to 64-57 with 5 1/2 minutes left. The Wildcats played catch-up the entire game, and trailed 37-33 at halftime. "We're not a good defensive team," Miller said. "We'll be better in the future." And hope is all Miller has to sustain him as he follows in the Hall of Fame footsteps of Olson. "That's my only choice," he said. Slideshow: Pac-10 Tournament Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

When puppets dance: Joe Goode Performance Group adds ... - Cleveland Plain Dealer Posted: 11 Mar 2010 08:53 PM PST By Donald Rosenberg, The Plain Dealer March 12, 2010, 12:00AM Joe Goode Performance GroupJoe Goode Performance Group members Patricia West and Melecio Estrella, foreground, are shown in a scene from "Wonderboy" with Andrew Ward and Wonderboy in the background. PREVIEW Joe Goode Performance Group What: The dance company from San Francisco performs Joe Goode's "Wonderboy," a collaboration with puppet maker Basil Twist, and "29 Effeminate Gestures." When: 8 p.m. Saturday. Where: Ohio Theatre, PlayhouseSquare, Cleveland. Tickets: $7-$35. Call 216-241-6000. The last time Basil Twist brought his puppets to town in 2005, they portrayed the kings and mother in Red (an orchestra)'s production of Gian Carlo Menotti's "Amahl and the Night Visitors." Another Twist creation takes the title role in "Wonderboy," the dance piece that the San Francisco-based Joe Goode Performance Group presents Saturday at the Ohio Theatre under the auspices of Tri-C Presents. "I had worked with [Twist] on a play and really fallen in love with his puppets," Goode said by phone from a tour stop in Indiana. "Up to that point, I had been puppetphobic. "I never enjoyed them. I thought they were too silly or too children's theater or too scary. So to see puppets that were really sensitive and fragile and beautiful, I was really surprised." In devising "Wonderboy," Goode decided the puppet would actually dance. Company members learned to work the puppet, which propels the tale of a shy figure who learns to accept his place in life. "He's kind of an uber-sensitive creature who can't live in the world properly because everything just vibrates him to the core," said Goode. "Something beautiful makes him weak and something harsh frightens him." But Wonderboy eventually realizes that his sensitivities help him understand people. The odyssey has more than a little Goode in it. A native of Hampton, Va., he moved to the Bay Area in the 1970s vowing to change the world. Goode knew he couldn't do so "in a pair of tights," so he began incorporating theater, poetry and other art forms. "I was always a dancer at heart," he said. "I love the thrill of that, the athletic charge of it. Eventually, I enlarged all of those things in one place." With dance, text, music and multimedia, Goode's works are narratives about the human condition. They touch on politics, social issues and sexuality, with input from his six dancers. "The whole intent is to humanize people and to not make them be hothouse orchids but real people who are fallible and normal," he said. "I'm often asking them to reveal themselves and participate in the process of writing and building the material." Goode revealed himself in a 1987 solo, "29 Effeminate Gestures," which he danced until about a decade ago. This weekend, company member Melecio Estrella will perform the work, an essay that uses mixed media. "A chain saw is involved," Goode said. "It's an early piece about confronting our fear and the social stigma of it. Do those gestures mean that in every culture. Why do they incite such violence and loathing, when they're just an expression of gender?" Goode, a faculty member at the University of California at Berkeley, has been presenting his personal view of dance with his company since 1986. His dancers are contracted four to six months per year. The company's annual budget ranges from $600,000 to $800,000, depending on grants. When they're in the studio, Goode and his colleagues do workshop-type exercises to develop their themes. "How do we get our hands dirty rather than just talking about it?" he said. "It's about how to feel and own it." Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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