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Thursday, October 05, 2006
Composition 11 -The Eager Beaver (1946) - functional & beautiful layouts
Here's a cool concept: Designing your BG layouts and character poses so that they compose artistically together.
Chuck Jones always thought about how his cartoons would look as graphics-even at an early stage of his career.
He worked closely with his layout artists-John McGrew and Robert Gribbroek in the 1940s to design each scene so that it would look good and read clearly in almost every pose.
Most cartoon directors staged their cartoons functionally-so that there was negative space in the background designs that would allow room for the characters to perform their actions in the clear-so you could see what they were doing, without a lot of clutter crossing through the silhouettes of the characters.
Jones took this functional concept and made it an art in itself.
THE EAGER BEAVER (1946) credits
Framing: The tree on the right and the smaller tree on the left of the beaver serve functionally as a frame around the character. Behind the character there is no detail to get in the way of the beaver's action.
Now, artistically-the contrasts in the design of the BG and pose are crafted very cleverly.
There are 2 trees.
One is big and tall
The other is small and short-contrast in sizes.
Nothing is in the middle-many cartoons today stage everything symmetrically-the left side of the composition mirrors the right.
The left side of the composition is mostly empty-the right side is filled with trees and a hill-this side is not going to interfere with the action so it can be filled to balance the open space on the left.
The trees are all slightly different angles-contrasts in angles.
Negative shapes-negative shapes are the spaces between the objects-these spaces, when used correctly, help make the positive shapes "read" clearly.
The 2 framing trees create a clear shape in the negative shape-a big "U" shape.
There are large negative shapes to frame the character. There are small negative shapes in the character's pose to help the line of action of his pose read. Contrast in negative shapes.
His line of action opposes the angle of the tree on the right which makes the composition dynamic.
Here's just a still background. It looks simple. It doesn't have a lot of detail or arbitrary clutter to impress your Dad or Jeffrey.
The complexity is in the thought behind the picture-in the choice of shapes and the placement of them.
Nothing is in the middle.
The main tree is in the foreground on the right.
The shdow of it falls on a diagonal and points to the tree behind it.
The skinny trees in the negative space between them are composed towards the right of the negative shape.
All this careful artistic asymmetry makes the designs seem natural and organic, not stiff, cluttered and accidental like many cartoons today.
Here the tree on the left acts as the frame around the beaver's pose. The negative shape between the trees will help his axe swing read clearly.
The skinny trees are not evenly spaced and all follow organic curves moving up, rather than straight lines.
Here is an example of what today would be misinterpreted as "No perspective". We are looking up at this shed, yet the lines all converge down rather than up and away from us as they would in reality.
Today's wacky layout artists think this means there are no rules in cartoons and they draw no perspective at all and the lines don't converge anywhere. Windows don't fit on buildings. Every building twists and turns in a different angle. This is sometimes referred to as "wonky" design. It started in Ralph Bakshi's Mighty Mouse, was copied by Beetlejuice (the Nelvana cartoon), Tiny Toons and A pup Named Scooby Doo and now is everywehere used as an excuse to not have to design anything with control or purpose or visual appeal.
This shed's backwards perspective is consistent with its bending of one rule-every edge doesn't follow its own way, so the shed holds together as a solid, yet cartoony form.
I find all these layouts to be elegantly handsome. Jim Smith is an expert at this kind of controlled design and composition.When we did Ripping Friends, Jim would deisgn and draw many great compositions-we sent them to service studios up north who immediately redrew them all and undid all the design, filled them with ugly clutter, placed everything in the middle and took out all the contrasts. I later discovered that that was the Canadian layout style that it is actually taught at the schools up here.
Nick Cross was the first Canadian I've met to break from the clutter style and he quicky became a top designer and layout artist once I informed him that is was OK to use artistic principles in cartoons.
These great Chuck Jones cartoons inspired other animators and designers who later founded UPA and used some of these principles and got rid of the clutter of the entertainment part of cartoons.
34 comments:
- LeoBro said...
Wow. Great observation on the "Explosives" shed. It looks so right that it took me a while to see that the perspective really is backwards even after you pointed it out.
I still don't understand why it works so well. Is it because the horizon is curved? (The vertical lines of the shed are pretty close to 90 degrees from the horizon at the point where they intersect.)
Thanks for continuing to sharpen me eyes!
- Shawn Luke said...
That was a great post, but I'm still not clear as to how that explosives shed drawing works. Its a great drawing to be sure. "Elegantly hansome" as you say. But how would you draw it? It's three quarter perpective, yes? But if we are looking up at it, shouldn't the shed be getting narrower?
Also, the school I went to in Vancouver did teach these principles, to the credit of the teachers, but wether the students absorbed them is a different matter. There was a lot of poorly skilled students accepted that year, including me, and we were taught so much, in such a short time, plus we all did final films. All this in 10 months, so I think its a matter of people not picking up everything and learning everything before they get in the indusry.
- Patrick said...
John, with all your knowledge, you should REALLY consider publishing a book!!! Chuck Jones is one of my favorites 'THE GRINCH" is still close to my heart after all these years!
- Ted said...
Golden section:
To be fair, the cartoon Beetlejuice had Tim Burton's work to draw odd angles from. "Vincent"
has a number of things at odd angles (background shadows and patterns, stairs, chair backs, etc.) in spite of an overriding up and down and left and right set up (see especially the "Abercrombie his zombie slave" shot for ), but the movie Beetlejuice had gone further in its sets.
- Max Ward said...
All these still frames have better composistion than some of the paintings hanging in museums.
- Vanoni! said...
Per your suggestion, a while back I went to a mutual acquaintance and put my hands on a pile of your in-house teaching guides. I was astonished at how difficult it was for you to get this layout and perspective mentality across to the Ripping Friends service studios!
I can't imagine the headaches you went through!
And Jim!
That abercrombie scene is a bad example, Ted.
It's all done with silhouettes! No forms!
- Corbett
- Mitch K said...
Man, every class I've had today (including this one) has been about Chuck Jones. It's Chuck-day.
GREAT post. Fantastic theories.
- Clinton said...
I appreciate the lecture on layouts, John. Good stuff.
- mike f. said...
Hey, John - great analytical post on Jones, one of my heroes.
Lots of Jones' cartoons exist as an excercise in design, and nothing more - this one being a case in point.
It doesn't have a particularly memorable story or especially interesting characters, and almost no really big laughs... BUT - it's really beautiful to look at, isn't it? And that's what makes it fun to watch.
And Jones' incredibly appealing drawing style (to me, anyway) and superb talent at posing expressive characters is the icing on the cake, in this and so many of his cartoons.
(These scans came from an old print that has "reddened" with age. A color-corrected print would be even more impressive, from a design point of view.)
As you pointed out on previous occasions, he was always experimenting. Jones made some design-driven cartoons (The Dover Boys, Aristo-Cat), some story-driven cartoons (One Foggy Evening), some gag-driven cartoons (Pest In The House), and some character-driven cartoons (The Three Bears series). And, at his peak, he produced the occasional masterpiece that perfectly combines elements of all four (I'm sure there are better examples, but the one that springs to mind at the moment is Wackiki Wabbit.)
To my eyes, the late forties was truly his peak. I think having Clampett to compete against kept him at the top of his game, and when Clampett left the studio he lost that competitive edge to some degree, and that was the beginning of the period when his films started to decline, slightly at first, and then precipitously by the mid-fifties.
The period in-between is the one I admire and draw the most inspiration from - an unprecedented solid run, with a string of occasionally brillant cartoons.
I once told Steve Worth - in a fit of pique during an argument - that the sun shone out of Jones' ass from 1942 to 1954, which was kind of a bizarre metaphor, I guess (Steve sure as hell thought so) but it's basically true!
Thanks for sharing some of Jones' ass lumination for the day.
- Ted said...
The room itself doesn't count?
It's not as counterintuitive a perspective as the way the explosives shed is (the top of the back wall is closer to the camera than the bottom, so even tho the back wall is a quadrilateral that's shortest on its bottom side like the shed, it's not as counterintuitive), but it is exagerrated perspective in the walls of the set.
- Vanoni! said...
I thought you were talking about the first scene that Vincent mentions 'Abercrombie the Zombie', Ted.
With the staircases.
That's some real wacky perspective alright - I won't argue with you.
Especially if you're going to make up big words!
- Keith Lango said...
Most excellent stuff. Thanks for taking the time to explore, elucidate and share!
- Ted said...
Those are all perfectly cromulent words.
- I don't really care said...
You've identified what I think Warner's directors did better than anyone before or since-- use every element to strengthen the psychology, emotion, and drama of the scene. Everything is a little goosed and charged in order to draw you further in. Clampett, Jones, and Tashlin wanted to make genuine, expressive cinema, and to use the medium to go a little further than live-action cinema can. I don't think Freleng or Avery were as motivated that way. I think they mostly wanted to stage gags, but were obviously still better at everything than almost anybody is today.
If anybody wants to know why modern cartoons suck, in a tangible and concrete way, it's because they do not even attempt any of these things. Even if modern creators understand such things, they usually exibit little to no interest in thinking about or executing them. I am still trying to figure out why. I have no working theory that does not indicate self-loathing as the cause.
The Ripping Friends backgrounds work for me, not because they are good in the sense that you just described, and they don't really work to to strengthen the actions or the characters in any technical ways, but because they seem vaguely inappropriate it's still funny, sort of like watching a big palooka sip tea from a tiny china cup with a doily. In this case the irony of crappiness pays off to some extent, because it's not just being used as an excuse to make a bad cartoon. Some of the BG's read more like vaudeville backdrops than as real backgrounds. Fortunately the comedians in the foreground are pretty funny. It wasn't what you conceieved, and I feel a little cheated as a result, but I don't have to wince when I watch RF.
The RF BG's are not much different than Harvey Birdman or AquaTeen-style BG's. They work anyway (or at least I'd say you got away with them), only because your characters are such a strong contrast. Once the locations register in your brain, many of the BG's pretty much wash out. They are rather pastel and washed out to begin with. I guess this is what they did to let the characters read, instead of thinking in-depth about where things should go and what shapes they should be. This does not explain why they would throw away the work they were given.
Mr. K, Is there any possibility of sharing some RF production art?
- Robert Hume said...
I know what your talking about in Beetlegeuse with the "wonky" windows but I don't think Tim Burton stole that from Mighty Mouse...Fritz Lang had that same window and door effect in his old 1927 Sci-Fi flick Metropolis, which was obviously a huge influence on a lot of Tim Burton's work. Maybe I don't know what I'm talking about, but I always thought that's where it had come from.
- Robert Hume said...
Hey my bad John, I just realized that you were talking about that Beetlegeuse cartoon and not the Tim Burton film...sorry I'm a little slow today. :P
- Robert Hume said...
Amazing post by the way John. Very informative!
- Joel Bryan said...
The explosives shed isn't 2-point perspective, just a little skewed? Huh... nope, it's not! I tried to work out the horizon line and the eye level and I can't... the vanishing points are all over the place!
Pretty cool.
But I'm shocked you guys would supply someone layouts and they'd change them. Why? Why wouldn't they just do what you gave them since it's your cartoon? That's so weird and stupid. Now I can see why things become frustrating in the animation industry.
Layout & Perspective are definately something I'm lacking in. Thanks for the great post John. Study it I will.
- Jorge Garrido said...
Wow!!! You broke it down in MATHEMATICAL detail, yet I bet Jones thought this stuff up instinctivally, and that's why was so great! Another greta post. Let me try to break down those last few layouts.
First of all, the entire vertical part of the left side is taken up by the tree, which immediately frames the picture in a way that "skews" it, since it's an an angle. IF it was stragiht up it'd look awful, but teh cruve makes it work extremely well. Simple detials on the bark. It's cartoony how much the tree is leaning, too. This must have been one of the most deliberate design choices. The greeny part start off perpendicular but follows an nice organic curbe down, not all at the same speed either (it's not a parabola) The lack of detail in the green makes it easier to read. The combination of the green adn tha tree forms a skewed uppercase L turned on 90 degrees, using, of course, organic shapes. This somehwat frames the background, which has more things in it. The brown tree is straight (yet organic) and clearly AVOIDS parralel lines with teh skrewy white tree. They form an "A" between them (negative space) The cloud sure looks cool. It's more visually interesting than blank sky, and it's really big, too, with a nice small counterpart above it. NONE OF THE THE ROUND SHAPES ARE PERFECT CIRCLES AND NOCNE HAVE THE SAME SHAPE. He didn't use a freaking compass to draw circles, like on Family Guy! The eye is drawn towards white space, so the tree actually had a V shaped branch which POINTS down like an arrow, leading your eye down to the characters. Ingenious!
This one had a great dramatic perspective whihc doens't really make sense. IF there was a lciff like taht in real life, from teh angle the charcteer is in, near teh bottom of teh fram,e you wouldn't be able to see the side droppiong off, the perspecitve is all wrong, which makes it right. The detail is sparse yet effective, so you believe in it (The little rocks contribute to this) The shape of the cliff is a round shark fin, an great unorthodox choice. The clouds follow this motif of blades, everyhting is in S cruves which sort of swoop and lead into each other. The tree is great, Jones used the rule of thirds and put it off center,and of course the lines aren't parallel. A tree could never be that far on the edge of a cliff, so agian you have visual interest derived from a lack of real life physics, but it's well thought out. Oh, yeah the side of teh cliff is a similar shade of teh brown tree, to the pic is monochromatic, I think that's the word. An, holy shit, the grass isn't bright green? That's wrong with him? I've taken the liberty of fixing this picture, according to modern day standards and will be psoting it soon.
This post is full of typos. GO!
- Jorge Garrido said...
- This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
- Max Ward said...
This post has really got me thinking for the past 2 days. I really want to see Chuck Jones cartonns but I don't have alot of tapes with his stuff on it. Thank you for posting this.
- Jorge Garrido said...
- This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
- The Butcher said...
Are the buildings in the original Firedogs an example of wonky design? The perspective is all out of whack with some of them.
- christopher said...
Hey John, if you look at Gribbroek's imdb profile it has him working into the 90's on Warner's stuff. Is this because they were reusing old footage from different shorts or did Chuck bring him back out of retirement? I ask because I know you've always sung his praises as a layout artist and I was wondering if you ever visited him? Is he still alive? Anyways, incredibly informative post! Thanks!
- JohnK said...
>>Are the buildings in the original Firedogs an example of wonky design?<<
probably. There is lots of wonkiness in my cartoons. I hate it. And that's what everyone imitates, rather than the few good things, they imitate the mistakes.
- Jorge Garrido said...
Hey, Christoper, to answer your question, all of Robert Gribbroek 1990's credits are from clips shows of his old cartoons from the 40's. It looks like his last cartoon where he did orignal work was in the Bugs Bunny/Roadrunner Movie.
I fixed that Chuck Jones layout so it's more modern:
- christopher said...
Yeah, I figured. Does anyone know if he is still alive? If he is someone needs to get there pronto to interview him. It would be cool to hear what he has to say about working in "Unit A" with Chuck and why he was seemingly cast aside for Maurice Noble? Thanks Jorge!
- The Butcher said...
"probably. There is lots of wonkiness in my cartoons. I hate it. And that's what everyone imitates, rather than the few good things, they imitate the mistakes."
I never even cared to take notice until I started drawing buildings in perspective. Ren Seeks Help has some of the best backrounds I've seen in Ren and Stimpy though.
- william wray said...
I love this "modern" period. My all time favorite cartoon backgrounds, so much right so much "wrong" on purpose. It's easy to do bad tight real, hard to do good tight real, easy to do bad stylization, harder to do good stylization, but almost impossible to blend then together and have them not fight. Good examples, more please.
- rebelbarbie said...
this was my birthday - and i am a canadian and i love this cartoon! hooray!
- Raff said...
>> but I'm still not clear as to how that explosives shed drawing works. <<
Here's my theory:
If the rules are really backwards, how do we know we're looking up at the shed at all?
For one thing, the handling of lighting is pretty logical. It looks like top lighting from a specific angle.
And to my eyes, it isn't wonky perspective - it's a wonky shed rendered in correct perspective. If you take what you see literally, the shed tapers down like a wastebasket, the front of the roof is higher than the back, the door is shaped funny and the word "explosives" is crooked.
Meanwhile, you can tell how thick the shed's wood panels are because the perspective of the front and side edges of the roof and the side edge of the door is relatively kosher. That's why it doesn't look flat.
Mind you, I'm basing this all on one layout.
hey John K, could you speak a little more on Chuck Jones' influence and contributions to animation? I'm an aspiring artist and animator and I'd like to know more!
- Paul B said...
Hi john:
I made a study from one of the Eager Beaver frames. Here it is:
Eager Beaver Study
could you please answer some of my questions? I think this composition stuff is a very important element in telling stories and I'm just bad at it.

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Portland scores 40 in first half, win big in league opener
A Kelsey Spitzley layup off the opening tip followed by a pair of three-point baskets by Allison Russell set the tone Friday night in the Portland girls basketball team's Capital Area Activities Conference White opener against Lansing Catholic.
The Raiders scored 20 points in each of the first two quarters to take a 40-14 lead at the break en route to a 54-27 victory over the Cougars.
"I thought we had great intensity throughout the game," Portland coach Ray Kimball said. "We controlled things on defense and when our shots roll in like they did tonight, it's contagious.
"If you want to be successful in the league, you have to win your home games, so this was a big win."
The Raiders opened the game on a 10-0 run, capped by a baseline jump shot made by Katie Blake. The Portland defense held Lansing Catholic to a pair of field goals and one free throw in the opening 12 minutes to take a 20-5 lead after one.
Russell went on to hit five baskets from behind the three-point line as she lead all scorers with 19 points. She also finished with six steals and four assists.
Spitzley scored 15 points for Portland, while Nikki Green chipped in with nine points and four assists.
Portland (4-0, 1-0 in CAAC White) will travel to Lake Odessa on Friday night to take on rival Lakewood.


text:
here's one by Mitch. He's hired. (I hope you separated the chairs from the characters, Mitch)
The hierarchy of his line weights is very logical. The overall forms of the characters are held together by thicker lines and the interior smaller details use thinner lines that wrap in the same directons as the larger forms. Especially on the heads. (The bodies could use a little more of that.)
He also did not even out any of the asymmetrical shapes, which is a huge plus to me. I have a hell of a time getting people to preserve the guts and flair of the pencil drawings, when they clean them up. Good job Mitch!
Here's Amir Avni. Pretty damn good. I gave him a couple corrections.
And here they are:


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Andy's Burger Night (Revisited)
On Sunday, January 27, five local producers showcased their meats at the third annual "Andy's Burger Night" from 1 to 4 p.m. at Unity Nursery on Rt. 213 near Church Hill. The event, created to showcase locally produced food items, is inspired by the Burger Nights that were so popular at Andy's, the beloved tavern that operated on High Street for two decades.


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Lying is Bad
Lying is just plain stupid. I don't know why I lie, because I always just end up getting in bigger trouble than if I had told the truth. When you lie a lot, nobody will believe you, but if you tell the truth everyone will believe you. When you lie, your life will turn upside-down. You will always get in trouble and you might not have any friends. Lying is the worst thing you can do to yourself, most of the time. You won't do well in school if you are holding a lie inside you. It is like the feeling of jealousy; the kind of feeling that is inside you and it hurts whenever you think about it. Can you imagine feeling like that until you told the truth? I cannot live like this anymore. From now on I will tell the truth and only the truth because The Truth Will Set You Free. Then I won't have anything to worry about.


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Temple in Mandalay, Burma, late 19th century (albumen print) (b/w photo)
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According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA):
Both copying CDs to give to friends and downloading music illegally rob the people who created that music of compensation for their work. When record companies are deprived of critical revenue, they are forced to lay off employees, drop artists from their rosters, and sign fewer bands. That's bad news for the music industry, but ultimately bad news for fans as well 1.
Parents can help their children understand copyright laws and responsibly download media if they keep current, keep communicating, and keep checking.
Whether or not downloading music and movies is illegal depends on the particular copyright attached to it. To be sure you and your child are downloading music and movies legally, it is important to go to a trustworthy site, for example: iTunes, 7digital, Napster, Amazon, Playlouder, HMV, and Virgin. Pandora Radio streams music for free and provides links for legal downloads.
For movies, stream shows from legal sites such as network television stations websites (CBS, Fox, NBC, and ABC), or rent/buy movies online through authorized vendors and dealers like Amazon, Unbox, Netflicks, and iTunes. Also, because sites like Yahoo! and MySpace have developed relationships with movie studios, they are sometimes able to show clips or even full-length versions of films.
Sometimes it's difficult for children to understand the legal protection that copyrights offer products and to realize the serious consequences they may face for downloading illegal material. Teach your children that copyrights grant the exclusive right for those that create music or videos to dictate when copies are made. Help children understand that downloading music and movies illegally for free is stealing because it robs its owner of the profit. One credible analysis by the Institute for Policy Innovation concludes that global music piracy causes $12.5 billion of economic losses every year, 71,060 U.S. jobs lost, a loss of $2.7 billion in workers' earnings, and a loss of $422 million in tax revenues, $291 million in personal income tax and $131 million in lost corporate income and production taxes 1.
Openly discuss with your children how they are obtaining music and movies. Involve them in the search for reputable sites that offer legal downloads. You may consider establishing, with your children, one or two official sites for downloading media.
Frequently review the media files stored on the computer or your child's mp3 player. If there seems to be an unusual influx of files, ask your child to explain his or her download strategy. Visit your child's favorite downloading sites to make sure they are legitimate and legal.
1Recording Industry Association of America (n.d.). For Students doing Reports. Retrieved from http://www.riaa.com/faq.php


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The judging process for Round 9 of Three-Minute Fiction is now under way. NPR's Bob Mondello reads an excerpt from one standout story, The Interview, written by Georgia Mierswa. You can read the story in its entirety below, and read more stories at www.npr.org/threeminutefiction.
Close to 4,000 stories are piling up at our NPR offices here, stories many of you submitted for Round 9 of our Three-Minute Fiction contest. Now, if you forgot the challenge this time, it was to write a story - under 600 words as always - that had to revolve around a U.S. President, real or fictional. And as we go through those entries, we're going to be reading excerpts from some of the standout stories over the next few weeks, including this one. It's called "The Interview."
BOB MONDELLO, BYLINE: (Reading) Anne Royall was a professional, first and foremost, a point she had to keep reminding herself the morning she caught President John Quincy Adams swimming naked in the Potomac. Caught might not be quite right, since she had planned it and followed him, waited in the woods while he disrobed and dove - rather gracefully for a man of politics - beneath the quicksilver surface. An onlooker might have found her pursuit romantic, the greenery lush about her, dappled with rosy light, but the widow Anne was sharp-tongued and ruthless and had been waiting for this a long time.
You've forced me into this position, you realize, she called out to the shocked and sputtering man before her. Four years, 18 requests in writing, and still you refuse me an interview. I doubt the men at The Post have trouble of this kind. The president, who had started swimming like a madman to the opposite shore, paused and turned to face her, his body fully submerged. He blinked. The two were silent a moment as Anne watched him take in the situation. Finally, he spoke: Mrs. Royall, is it?
RAZ: That was our Bob Mondello reading an excerpt from the story "The Interview," written by Georgia Mierswa of Hoboken, New Jersey. The winner will be picked by our judge this round, Brad Meltzer, and the winning story will be published in the Paris Review. You can read more of "The Interview" and others we'll be posting at our website, npr.org/threeminutefiction - and three-minute fiction all spelled out with no spaces.
(SOUNDBITE OF CLOCK TICKING) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


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Roopa VasudevanAdjunct, Alumni, Former Staff, Class of 2013
|Courses Taught:
|Introduction to Computational Media
This is the Remix
Roopa Vasudevan is interested in utilizing technology in order to explore the influence of language, culture and social norms on the ways people perceive and treat each other. Her work has been presented at venues across the country and online, and she has also been a producer, editor and motion graphics artist for the New York Times, MTV, and the American Museum of Natural History. She received a BA in Film Studies from Columbia University, and an MPS from NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP), where she was also a resident researcher in 2013-2014. Roopa is a member of the Flux Factory community of artists, and adjunct faculty at ITP and Fordham College.
|City of Origin:
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Plans are well under way for the 100th anniversary celebration of All Schools Day in McPherson May 5 to 11.
All past May Queens of McPherson County will be honored during the 100th anniversary of All Schools Day. The May Fete committee would like to contact all former May Queens, and is requesting your help in locating them.
If you know the name, email address, phone number or home address of a former May Queen, please share it by going to the website: http://www.allschoolsday.com or send information to: May Fete Committee, 105 Eastmoor Drive, McPherson, KS 67460.


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Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Tough TV Questions Surround Track Swap
It was Ed Clark from the Atlanta Motor Speedway who was the first guest on Tuesday's edition of NASCAR Now. Ryan Burr returned as host and the topic was changes to the Sprint Cup Schedule for 2009.
Clark is a respected veteran and he spoke clearly about the big issue. Atlanta was giving up their one race in The Chase to take an earlier date on the schedule. Clark said the magic words several times in his answer to the question of why the change was made. Those magic words were "night race."
Atlanta had given up a Chase race for a night race, California's Auto Club Speedway will be welcomed to The Chase in October and Talladega will scoot back a bit into November. That big track will stay firmly in The Chase races. Over on Foxsports.com, Larry McReynolds called it a win-win-win for the tracks and the fans.
Rusty Wallace was all smiles as Burr welcomed him into the show from the Iowa Speedway. Wallace is a partner in the track and was instrumental in the design. Burr let Wallace have his moment in the sun as Iowa Speedway was awarded a Nationwide Series race for next season. Clearly, Wallace has designs on a Sprint Cup Series race in the future.
Burr recapped the Tony Stewart number swap, with Stewart releasing the number 4 and telling Ryan Newman he will be in the 39 for next season. Hard feelings aired by the Morgan McClure team had a little something to do with that decision. Stewart has once again shown himself to be a very savvy businessman.
David Newton was not around, but Burr added a "Newton nugget" that the Montoya team had lost the Texaco-Havoline sponsorship for next season. It would have been nice to let a Ganassi spokesman address that issue. Burr closed the show with a promo for E:60 and the feature piece on Alba Colon, GM's Program Manager for NASCAR. There will be a column up on that program when it is completed.
There certainly was a lot happening in the racing world and this NASCAR Now episode covered almost all the bases. When the Gibbs team penalties come out tomorrow, maybe Burr can ask Andy Petree if he still believes the drivers were involved in placing the magnets on the cars. The email about that statement from both Petree and Tim Brewer has not let up. Wednesday should make for another interesting program.
The Daly Planet welcomes comments from readers. Simply click on the COMMENTS button below and follow the easy instructions. The rules for posting are located on the right side of the main page. Thank you for taking the time to stop by.
29 comments:
- majors house said...
I am happy that the California race has been moved and we have a decent track to have a Labor Day race, but I am a purist and really wish that they had left Darlington alone and just moved the Southern 500 to a night race. It has been shown since they moved the spring race to the evening, they have sold that track out every race and see no reason why it could not happen on labor Day weekend.
I really do not see the point of many tracks having two races and many of them being just a few weeks apart. I really think that the racing would be better if we had a schedule much like the truck series and no chase to contend with. I also would get rid of that nasty COT car because even though it may be a safer car, it has led to some horribly boring racing too.
- August 19, 2008 at 9:06 PM
- Adam T. Martin said...
I missed the report today until I got on this blog. Pretty interesting news.
"I am a purist and really wish that they had left Darlington alone. "
That alone should have stayed the same. Unfortunatley, money won out.
"I also would get rid of that nasty COT car because even though it may be a safer car, it has led to some horribly boring racing too."
It isn't a stock car nor a Chevy, Ford, Dodge, or Toyota. Again, another "money" issue.
Unnecessary track swapping + COT = boring racing on TV no matter who televises it.
- August 19, 2008 at 9:31 PM
- Sophia said...
Interesting to hear of the changes in the schedule which I read about online. I watched NN for news on JGR fines as I was in the kitchen prepping dinner.
I just half watched this show. STILL not a peep about Blaney's accident.
Also the BUBBLE BOY thing still has me wretching. I shall watch the Truck race (HOPE I REMEMBER it's WED. night!!)
But I am afraid I am finished with ESPU.
I am not a huge follower in detail of Dave Blaney but if that had been KyB, Jr, Jimmie or Jeffie in the wreck, they would've not dismissed it so lightly.
Then somebody from this place filled me in with MORE details which disgusted me even MORE the Blaney wreck NEVER got the follow up it deserved.
The silence is DEAFENING but since he ain't one of the golden boys, hardly a peep...but I have grown weary of message board lurking since the cream of the savvy posters seem to be here.
I learn more about the races READING THIS BLOG than any ESPN broadcast.
Thanks to all who comment, and enlighten me.
And thanks to JD for the blog and the recent additions.
It's so appreciated.
I think I will still be as in touch with the racing from reading here, rather than sitting in front of the tv screaming and thinking "here is 4 hours I am not going to get back" just to be annoyed.
But I will watch a handful of races, still. But the CHASE is a turnoff as is the ESPN obsession with it.
- August 19, 2008 at 9:57 PM
- Dot said...
I'm with you again. I'll read about NN via JD and my e-friends (how I think of alot of you), but will not watch it.
CA's race move is not going to help the first one. LV is only a couple of weeks later. Since I live in LV, it's a no brainer for me to choose LVMS over Fontana. And, since we're considered CA East, alot of
Californians have friends or family they can stay with. Again, more butts in the seats here. Plus, more to do here than 65 miles away from the action in L.A. Maybe CA will finally lose a date and Rusty will get his wish.
Why no word about the penalty for JGR? Is it a non issue now?
Small detour here. I have a dilemma. I said I wasn't going to watch the race this Sunday. But it's Bristol. Can ESPN miss all that action? What to do, what to do? Being an election year, I don't want to be a flip flopper.
- August 20, 2008 at 12:22 AM
- Dot said...
Oops, the race is on Sat.
- August 20, 2008 at 12:23 AM
- Sophia said...
Well if it's a track you really LOVE, watch it.
I will keep things open for me for Talladega...and some other tracks (Don't they do Chicago again? or Atlanta?)
see how disintrested I am? But this weekend it's Cajun/dixieland...two nights if I am up for it!
And don't hate me but I was never a fan of Bristol (sophia can hear folks screaming) Ken Schrader once said, it's a great event but a horrible race! I agreed.
But they did IMPROVE the track last year and OMG I just remembered..schrader is IN the race this Saturday....96 car I think
uh, oh...might have to tape it and read how he does here first.
Talk about your flip flops, Dot.
Well, it is a political year so we fit right in!!
- August 20, 2008 at 12:41 AM
- bevo said...
Dot /
No penalty was announced today, it's a unique situation so I imagine it will take them an extra day or two to figure out the punishment.
Got to love Rusty's comment about Hamlin having a bad attitude and not thinking about the team. Yep, Rusty ;)
- August 20, 2008 at 12:43 AM
- majors house said...
Only Rusty would know about having a bad attitude about a teammate and he has shown his butt on more than one occasion there too.
- August 20, 2008 at 7:56 AM
- GinaV24 said...
I guess I'm a purist because I think the only place to have a race on Labor Day is at Darlington. If they had changed it to a night race, they'd sell it out every time. I'm not going to watch the race at the boring California track no matter when they schedule it. I've napped through the sleeper in February and its a matter of principle to me to never watch the race there on Labor Day in protest of NASCAR's stupidity. I hope Atlanta does benefit from a night race because that is a great track to be at to see a race. Yuck, Dega is still in the chase, great, what everyone needs a crap shoot to determine the 10 race champion. I'm not sure if I'm watching the Bristol race. ESPN has pretty much lost me as a viewer for races. It was an incredibly boring race last year -- hard to believe that NASCAR could succeed in making Bristol boring, but between the repaving and the cinderblock on tires, well, there you go. If I follow the race, it will probably be on MRN or my computer. Then I'll know what's going on instead of silence from the PXP or bad camera work.
- August 20, 2008 at 9:14 AM
- Anonymous said...
I can certainly see why some race dates need to be moved . California in the summer really never made sense . Darlington in the sweltering heat on Labor day never did either , but the place sold out so how bad could it have been . This frenzy to stage every NASCAR series race on Saturday nights is very disturbing for local short tracks . There two reasons for it of course . Greed and Greed . Short tracks might have to start moving their races to Sunday afternoons just to survive .
- August 20, 2008 at 9:40 AM
- Kevin in SoCal said...
All you "purists" need to realize that NASCAR is no longer a "Southern sport" and has reached out to all areas of the United States and even beyond. Stop being greedy yourselves and share your NASCAR with the rest of us. I'm not surprised to still see the hate for California even with them not being on Labor Day anymore. If y'all are consistant, you'll start bashing Atlanta now for being on Labor Day, but I doubt it, since its a "Southern" track. There are NASCAR fans in places other than the Southern states, and we would appreciate a little of that southern hospitality and respect you're famous for.
Next we need to start rallying for Martinsville, as it might lose a date next. There are only 6 short-track races on the whole schedule, and it would be a shame to lose one to Kansas or any other big "cookie-cutter" speedway. We have enough of those. I wouldnt mind giving up a California date to Iowa, but there are only 6 races here in the West, and 15 in the South.
- August 20, 2008 at 12:52 PM
- Anonymous said...
Bristol IS a Great Event and a Great Race!!! If it wasn't, it wouldn't be the MOST wanted ticket in NASCAR!!!
- August 20, 2008 at 2:10 PM
- glenc1 said...
Sophia, add me in...never cared for Bristol--too much wrecking, not enough racing, but I guess there are always some who prefer it that way. COT with repaved track has been much better racing.
BTW, kevininSoCal...I feel no anomosity to CA--but since they fill half the stands for both races, they've only earned one. And I think this may be a last ditch attempt to keep 2 there. They've done all they can do to get people in the seats. But I add to be fair, I am pretty sure Darlington had long stopped selling out even on Labor day, that's why they went to one instead of 2 (and it's one of my favorite tracks.) BTW--still wondering why everyone is so sure Rusty was the only one with a bad attitude. I think it was a 2 way street, and I like them both. Just very different guys.
But I'm digressing from the show. I'm thinking there was no time to get a Ganassi POV about Tex-H. But if I were them, I don't think I'd want to talk about it, lol. The show covered the bases, but I'm not sure there were a lot of 'Tough' questions.
- August 20, 2008 at 2:47 PM
- Kevin in SoCal said...
With all the billions Texaco and the other oil companies are making, why would they drop their NASCAR sponsorship? Is Sunoco pushing them out?
- August 20, 2008 at 3:53 PM
- Daly Planet Editor said...
Thank you for your comment. Without giving Ganassi a chance to respond, this story should not have been run.
Mr. Newton and I disagree fundamentally about journalism but why on earth would you tell only one side of the story when a phone call could fill-in the rest?
The answer...breaking news. The rush to have it first results in half-stories being put on the air. Ganassi has been a good racing guy for a long time and he deserved the right to comment on this.
We used to joke that TWIN on SPEED had the cart before the horse. Maybe since they got things sorted-out that have passed that distinction over to NASCAR Now.
- August 20, 2008 at 4:05 PM
- Anonymous said...
Kevin , Sunocois one of the smaller oil companies . They aren't capable of pushing Texaco or anyone else out of NASCAR . Texaco just seems to have had enough .
- August 20, 2008 at 5:17 PM
- Lisa Hogan said...
NASCAR has been racing in the state of California since back in the day. If I'm not mistaken, the state of California has three races per season. Greedy? Sounds like a case of "southern hate" to me.
The Southern 500 at Darlington on Labor Day weekend had a lot of history. A Southern 500 win was a victory that every driver wanted in their resume. A lot of people were upset to have that tradition taken from Darlington.
I'm going to show a little southern manners and not say how I feel about the California Speedway races. :)
I hope the changes in the schedule will work out for all the tracks involved.
- August 20, 2008 at 6:31 PM
- Kevin in SoCal said...
Lisa, I completely understand the point about Darlington, but what I dont understand is the misplaced hate and anger towards California Speedway. It is NOT the track's fault. The blame lies squarely on NASCAR and ISC's shoulders, as they make the schedule every year. But the southern fans see fit to blame California anyway, and I dont get it. I dont hate the South, I just hate the attitude from the South directed towards my local track, which I feel is not warranted.
- August 20, 2008 at 7:32 PM
- Lisa Hogan said...
Kevin, ever notice that you use the word "hate" a lot? :)
I'd advise you to start hanging out in different places if you are being subjected to "California hate".
You can't get more southern than I am. I have heard displeasure at the removal of the Southern 500 from Darlington; but have not heard the California track being blamed. You seem to be pointing the finger at all southern fans and that just isn't fair.
But, we do live in two different worlds. Especially with me being a girl and all. :)
- August 20, 2008 at 8:01 PM
- Anonymous said...
How do you watch NASCAR Now? I bet Ryan Burrster has never watched a whole NASCAR race in his life! He also looks just like Herman Munster and has the same BLAND voice!!!
- August 21, 2008 at 12:56 AM
- Anonymous said...
California can't even support a NFL team in L.A. and NASCAR still thinks they will support 2 Cup races a year?
- August 21, 2008 at 1:00 AM
- Anonymous said...
Yes, they needed to move the CA race, but they didn't move it far enough. They should have moved at least 1 race COMPLETELY OFF the schedule!!!
- August 21, 2008 at 1:03 AM
- Kevin in SoCal said...
You see Lisa, these two anonymous comments above me are what I'm talking about. I see comments like this on just about every NASCAR website I visit.
L.A. supported two football teams just fine in the 80's and early 90's, but sports teams are fickle and they want the latest and greatest stadiums, better than everyone else. When the Raiders and the Rams couldnt get what they wanted here, they went elsewhere. It had nothing to do with the local fans. In fact, there are still huge Raiders and Rams fans here.
- August 21, 2008 at 1:19 AM
- bevo said...
The reporting on the Texaco situation should dig deeper for the real story. The 42 is actually the Texaco Havoline car just like the 29 is the Shell Pennzoil car. Because of the exclusive deal SUNOCO has with NASCAR those sponsors have to advertise their engine oil and not their fuel. Remember Harvick's uniform when he won the 2007 Daytona 500 and the stink SUNOCO raised because Shell was too prominent? Just like NASCAR's deal with Sprint is forcing AT&T and Alltel to leave so now the same is happening with Texaco. NASCAR has cost three teams their sponsorships now with a poor economic climate to deal with.
- August 21, 2008 at 4:27 AM
- glenc1 said...
but bevo...the car has been 'Havoline' going at least back to Davey Allison--have they ever stressed the gas over the oil? I don't recall it. I think this one is a different story. I'm guessing the poor performance of CGRw/FS combined with the last few lackluster years at Yates was just too much. I agree with the general gist of NASCAR's greed costing them sponsors, though. Add Geico from the N-wide series.
And I see JD's point now about getting more of the story or not reporting it at all. It could have waited, because it is odd that they're leaving the sport altogether.
kevin--just remember that people who post on boards are often pretty negative to start with, and don't necessarily represent the general public. Those anon comments simply said they should take one away. Personally, I like CA--the drivers will tell you that all those tracks are different, not the same as people think they are. And NASCAR isn't going anywhere. I think one there plus Sonoma is all they seem to be able to support at this time, unless this change really does work. Regardless, in my mind, they ought to light Darlington and put it back on Labor day. Spring race to KY. JMO--but it's not because I hate CA or the race there.
- August 21, 2008 at 9:05 AM
- glenc1 said...
oops, should have said turn the lights back on, they already have them.
- August 21, 2008 at 9:08 AM
- Lisa Hogan said...
O.K. Kevin, once more around the track. You point to two anon negative comments to support your statements that southern fans "hate" California.
I will point to those same anon statements as truly anon with no geographical location given. I think that you are seeing monsters under your bed when there are actually only dust bunnies. :)
I'm finished with this comment section before JD black flags me for conduct unbecoming to a southern belle. :)
- August 21, 2008 at 12:56 PM
- Kevin in SoCal said...
Lisa, its not just southern fans, though. Read the comments from the start. The very first one is anti-California, and then there are several more right after that one. It wasnt just the last two anonymous ones, I just used them to prove my point. And as I said, its not just this board, its almost every board I visit. It gets to be tiring hearing all these negative comments about my state and about my home track. Whatever happened to "if you cant say something nice, dont say anything at all" ??
- August 21, 2008 at 4:04 PM
- Anonymous said...
Darlington has good races, CA doesn't! Take away a good race and give it to a crappy track? Why shouldn't the SOUTH be mad? I want to see good races, not bad ones like, California, Pocono, Kansas and Chicago, I don't care where the tracks are located!!!
- August 21, 2008 at 6:01 PM


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Breaking Security news
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Posted on 2011-04-14
On March 23rd Comodo CA Limited, a major SSL Certificate Authority, announced that on March 15th, one or more of their Registration Authorities was compromised, and a number of SSL certificates were fraudulently issued for such important sites as google, gmail, yahoo, mozilla, live.com and skype. The purpose of the compromised appeared to be the circumvention of the SSL encryption to these sites via a man-in-the-middle attack to allow eavesdropping on communications to these sites. If successfully executed, such an attack could sign malware that appeared to be official mozilla software, as well as compromising credentials and all communications via gmail, yahoo mail, and hotmail.
To understand the importance of this compromise and its possible implications, we require an understanding of what SSL/TLS is, and how it is used. The Transport Layer Security (TLS is a newer protocol that has superseded SSL, but it is still commonly referred to as SSL) is a protocol for providing secure communications between two parties over a public network such as the Internet. TLS provides 3 of the key components of information security:
- Authenticity - The identity of the party on the other end of the communication is confirmed by a trusted third party
- Confidentiality - The communication cannot be eavesdropped or read by anyone other than the intended recipient
- Integrity - The communication cannot be modified, altered or garbled en-route
The problems start when you assume the padlock means everything is safe. The padlock means that the connection is encrypted, and that a Certificate Authority (a selection of companies trusted by your browser) affirms that the server you are talking to possesses the private half of the key for this domain. You still need to carefully check that the domain is correct; it is easy to get a certificate for a misspelling of a popular site, and that certificate is completely valid. The problem is compounded by the international domain extensions that allow non-Latin characters in domain names (there is a Russian letter that looks like the Latin 'a', but which is different, and some enterprising individual registered paypal.com with the alternate letter and managed to get a certificate for it)
In the beginning, SSL certificates were hard to get, and extremely expensive. They required thorough background checks and extensive documentation. This all changed with the introduction of 'Domain Control Verified' certificates. It was decided that everyone should have access to SSL, and as long as you could prove you control the domain, you could get a certificate for somewhere around $8-$20. You can even sometimes manage to get one for free during a promotion, or on a trial basis. Originally these required telephone verification, but now all you have to do is receive an email to one of the RFC2143 addresses on the domain, or the one listed in the whois records, and you are on your way to getting a certificate.
The recent Comodo security breach brought some interesting facts to everyone's attention. It seems that the Email verification is done by the reseller, not by the CA themselves, so when one of the resellers' accounts was compromised (authentication only required a simple password), that reseller user was able to issue certificates for google, yahoo, skype, mozilla, etc without the email verification (this is done for marketing reasons; the CA sells resellers a 'white box' product that they can brand themselves, so the emails come from the reseller). This would seem to be insufficiently secure.
To combat this, Comodo is going to roll out a hardware based two-factor authentication system for its resellers, but I would still like to see the verification step moved to Comodo from the resellers. One of the problems that surfaces when trying to deal with this issue is that Comodo issues most of the certificates sold by its resellers directly from its root certificate. At the behest of Mozilla, Comodo has promised to transition to using a separate sub-CA for each reseller, a step that would make it easier to revoke or un-trust a specific reseller. The market position of Comodo, as one of the largest issuers of cheap SSL certificates, makes it impractical for them to revoke all of their certificates, especially since most of them are perfectly legitimate.
The problems stem from the fact that the certificate revocation system is broken. Rather than being able to revoke the invalid certificates that were issued, browsers had to issue an update that blacklisted those certificates, because the revocation system could not be trusted to stop them being used. This means, among other things, that certificates verified by other means, rather than in a browser, may not block these bad certificates. Microsoft issued a security advisory and update #2524375 to blacklist the certificates. The old system for revoking certificates involved each CA having a fixed URL where they published a list of revoked certificates. Your browser would periodically download this list of certificates and reject any certificates it received that matched the list. This system is being superseded by the OCSP (Online Certificate Status Protocol) which allows for the validity of a certificate to be checked in real time by a small HTTP request, rather than downloading a large CRL, parsing it, and trying to match the certificate in question against the list. Support is available in most modern browsers, but some such as safari do not ship with the feature enabled by default.
This brings us to the important issue of who decides which CAs are trusted and how do we ensure that those CAs remain trustworthy. Each browser manufacturer selects which CAs to trust based on their own criteria, although most trust a common pool of the most popular CAs. Mozilla publishes their list of requirements to become a trusted CA on this website: http://www.mozilla.org/projects/security/certs/policy/. Interestingly, the OpenSSL project, the most popular implementation of SSL does not distribute a certificate bundle, opting instead to force users to choose which CAs to trust, or to import an existing certificate list (such as the one from mozilla).
Some of these issues are solved by 'Extended Validation (EV) Certificates'. These certificates are regular SSL certificates except that a more stringent set of criteria must be met by the subject before an EV SSL certificate is issued. EV SSL Certificates also include more information about the subject, including the full legal business name, full business address and government identification (Incorporation ID). These requirements are set forth by an industry association and ostensibly enforced by the browser manufacturers who decide which EV SSL CAs are trusted. This system does a better job of verifying the identity of the subject, however it still suffers from the same issue as the regular SSL CA architecture: the lack of trust agility. With either system, the issue is that CAs have become 'too big to fail'. You cannot stop trusting a large CA without invalidating the certificates of a very large number of valid websites. According to the EFF's SSL Observatory, there are more than 4.3 million valid certificates on the publicly accessible internet, plus more on internal networks. These certificates are issued by over 650 different organizations under nearly 1500 different CA Certificates in 52 countries. Without the ability to revoke trust from the CA, there is no way to force the CAs to consider the needs of the PKI infrastructure over their own business needs. The lack of an incentive for the CAs to maintain their trustworthiness has resulting in a lot of bad behaviour, including the issuance of EV SSL certificates with incredibly low key sizes (512 bits compared to the required 2048), or the 37,000 plus certificates that the EFF found for unqualified domain names, such as 'localhost' or 'exchange'.
Another issue is that more and more certificate authorities are being pressured by governments. Especially in countries that partake in censorship, being able to get a valid Certificate Authority to issue you a rogue certificate for google or facebook would allow you to perform an undetectable man-in-the-middle attack, and intercept the credentials as well as all other data being passed between the user and the target service. In countries that do not respect human rights and freedom of the press this could result in the jailing or execution of dissidents and journalists.
In the end, SSL is what we have and it works, after a fashion, but moving forward we need stronger controls on the CAs to force them to consider the good of the infrastructure over their profit motive, or risk losing their accreditation. When a CA is trusted now, it basically must be trusted forever, or risk the wrath of the spurned customers. Some form of trust agility that doesn't break large swaths of the Internet is the only way to get away from this, but there is, as of yet, no such solution ready to be adopted.
By: +Allan Jude
Posted on 2010-04-03
A recent article by John Pozadzides only seemed to reinforce some old misconceptions about passwords and do more harm than good. Things have changed significantly and people need to be aware of the implications of changes in how passwords are stored, and in the tools that are available to crack them. Read on as I explain the ins and outs of protecting your password and the data behind it.
Posted on 2010-04-02
Crawling twitter earlier I came across a website that was offline due to a denial of service attack, and the owner was not sure when or if it would be back online. This piqued my interest and made me wonder what type of attack the site was suffering from, as some types can be successfully mitigated by experienced administrators. With this article I'll explain some of the different types of attack and mitigation techniques.
Posted on 2009-12-05
In recent days, the WyldRyde IRC network lost their services database, when one of their accounts was suspended and deleted by the shell provider. Apparently their backups of the services database were stored on that same shell account.
Posted on 2009-07-25
Network Solutions' web servers were compromised, and some extra code was added to their payment processing service, allowing the perpetrators to syphon off the credit card information for all transactions processed through the service. This breach not only affected customers of Network Solutions, but the customers of the over 4500 e-commerce sites that use the service.
Cuiusvis hominis est errare; nullius nisi insipientis in errore perseverare - Any man can make a mistake; only a fool keeps making the same one.
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The hexadecimal color code #f9f6db is a very light shade of yellow. In the RGB color model #f9f6db is comprised of 97.65% red, 96.47% green and 85.88% blue. In the HSL color space #f9f6db has a hue of 54° (degrees), 71% saturation and 92% lightness. This color has an approximate wavelength of 571.96 nm.
Yellow Ocre / 4306 B
W-B-420 White Hydrangea
I am seeking. I am striving. I am in it with all my heart.

…

Creativity takes courage.

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If I could say it in words there would be no reason to paint.

…


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Okay so forget those rolls I posted last week, I'm sending out a recipe that is much lighter than your normal chili. It's not exactly the same as the traditional beef variety and it's probably tamer than many of you might like (but I'm a bit of a heat whimp when it comes to spice) but you're free to heat it up with as many chilies as you feel you must have.
It's really a great recipe.
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
2 tablespoons garlic
1 1/2 teaspoons cumin
2 teaspoons ground chili powder
1 ½ pound chicken, cubed
2 15-ounce cans garbanzo beans
1 6-ounce can of diced chilies
2 14-oz cans chicken broth
2 cans cannelli beans
monterey jack cheese to garnish
Saute onion and garlic in the olive oil. Stir in cumin and chili powder and simmer 1 minute. Add raw chicken and cook over med heat until browned. Drain 1 can of garbanzo beans and puree both cans of beans with remaining the remaining liquid. Add chilis, broth, cannelli beans, then salt to taste.
I hope these instructions are thorough, I've made it so many times the details are a bit sketchy in my mind but this ought to get to you where you want to be.
And on a totally unrelated subject . . . we took the kids to see The Tale of Despereaux and I have to say it was pretty bad.
Besides the inelegant computer animation (the people resembled wax reinforced with rebar and made Disneyland animatronics look graceful) it took a full hour for the story to get established. AN HOUR. By that time you're wondering if you can abandon your children and sneak out of the theater to hang out in the lobby then you wonder if maybe anyone would notice if you turned on your cell phone and played a game or two and then you moan about why you didn't just give in and take the kids to Transporter 3 after all. Even extreme gratuitous fantasy violence would have been more bearable than what you are being forced to endure for the love of a child.
Maybe that's why it's called Despereaux. As in desperation.
After an hour of mindless meandering (including but not limited to a bizarre magic vegetable man, death by soup drowning and a rat with cataracts) a few new characters get introduced with very little happiness resulting and by the time the end credits roll you're convinced that the film without a doubt marks the end of a long and illustrious career for Mr. Dustin Hoffman.
It was all very surprising considering the enormous list of big timers that lent their voices to the film. Dustin Hoffman, William H. Macy, Tracy Ullman, Stanley Tucci, Kevin Kline, Sigourney Weaver, Emma Watson, Christopher Lloyd, Matthew Broderick, etc. etc. etc. Apparently two hours of voice work is a great way to make some change nowadays and doesn't necessarily guarantee my ticket price.
Sigh. I should have taken the kids to Transporter 3.
Sponsored by Pak Naks–Decorate your stuff with these adorable rubber charms.
Technorati tags: soup, food, chili


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This year's Little League baseball and softball season is under way — and in the Northeast, some teams and players have taken the field again, despite losing vital equipment to Hurricane Sandy. Many donations were handled by Pitch In For Baseball, which gathered used and new gloves and helmets for the players.
In February, the organization announced it would provide equipment worth $150,000 to baseball and softball players in the New York region. And as its founder, David Rhode, tells NPR's Michel Martin on Tell Me More Wednesday, he saw a need for Pitch In For Baseball to help give kids a sense of normalcy after the disruptions brought by Sandy.
While many relief and charity aid focuses on humanitarian needs, Rhode says that "it's very difficult and sometimes non-existent for these sort of quality-of-life, extracurricular activities, because communities and families sometimes have to prioritize — and kids are asked to sacrifice in a lot of situations."
Founded in 2005, Pitch In For Baseball was originally meant to help children around the world play baseball. But the devastation brought to the U.S. Gulf Coast by Hurricane Katrina made it clear the group could also help American kids, Rhode says. They saw a similar need in the aftermath of Sandy, as leagues asked for help.
"After a storm or after some other event, your life is turned upside down," Rhode tells Michel. "And sometimes for kids that we've met, the most important thing on their mind is really, what about my game on Tuesday, or what about my glove? And so we think it's great to give kids that simple activity, the simple sense of joy of going out and playing."
Stella Smith, 12, is one of the players who got a boost.
"I've been playing softball since I was seven," she tells Michel, "but I also played tee-ball when I was I like four or five years old." Stella now plays on the Island Park Little League Softball team in Island Park, N.Y.
"Could you tell us why it's so important to be able to play and have adults like David try to help make sure that kids can play?" Michel asks.
"It's really important in my point of view," Stella answers, "because we need our friends. And as much as we need food and gas and all the things that adults have to worry about, kids worry about it, too. And like, I know it doesn't seem like that, but we do. And the most important thing to us is that if our families are OK — and just being back on the field makes us feel like we don't need to worry about that anymore."
After the storm hit, Stella's family spent a couple weeks with an aunt. A stay in another family's basement followed. The Smiths recently moved back home, she says.
Asked by Michel if playing softball is a break from the struggles of the past several months, Stella says, "It is."
"It feels like nothing can go wrong," she says. "My feelings can't get hurt, because everyone's included. And it's just, everyone is so great. And I just love my whole team."
Stella says her team played its first game a couple weeks ago, against Long Beach. The Island Park kids trailed 7-1 early, and lost the game after their comeback bid was turned away, 7-6. To Stella, it was a good first outing.
"It felt amazing," she says, "because I actually felt like I could be part of a team, and call myself part of a team."
Like a true team player, Stella also reeled off her squad's sponsors: "Nassau Financial Federal Credit Union and Jewelry by Steven.com."
This is TELL ME MORE from NPR News. I'm Michel Martin. Coming up, I have some thoughts on redemption. Who gets it and who doesn't? That's my Can I Just Tell You essay and that's in just a few minutes.
But first, we want to tell you about somebody who's come up with an interesting way to help kids. Spring is here and for a lot of us that means grabbing a chair and heading to the park and taking in a game or two at the local field. So what do you do if for some reason you don't have enough equipment or not enough for a whole team? That's where David Rhode comes in. He founded the organization Pitch In For Baseball. It collects gently used equipment so that kids all over the U.S. and around the world can play ball, and David Rhode is with us now from Philadelphia.
Thanks for joining us.
DAVID RHODE: My pleasure, Michel. Great to be here.
MARTIN: Also with us is Stella Smith. She is a softball player from Island Park, New York. Her family just moved back home after having to leave their home in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, and we're pleased that she's with us as well. Stella, thank you so much for joining us.
STELLA SMITH: You're welcome. Thank you for having me.
MARTIN: You know, they say you shouldn't tell a lady's age, so is it OK if I say that you're 12?
SMITH: Yeah.
MARTIN: OK. Well, you hear that I had her permission to share that. So David Rhode, let me start with you. How did you get the idea for Pitch In For Baseball?
RHODE: Well, it was 2005. I had recently sold a business. I was looking to do something that made a bigger impact in the world, and at the same time I was coaching my two boys in baseball. And looking around I could see that the stuff that was piling up in my house and in my garage, if it was anything like other folks around the country, then there was a lot of gear that could be put to better use, and so in effect that was the genesis of Pitch In For Baseball right there. If we could connect people with stuff, with folks that needed it, we could make a difference.
MARTIN: So 2005 is the same year as Hurricane Katrina. Were the two related?
RHODE: Sure. It was happenstance. The organization was founded during the summer, but our first organizational meeting was September 20 of that year, about three weeks after Hurricane Katrina, so even though the original focus of the organization was meant to be helping kids overseas play the game, it seemed that there was so much energy and so much desire to help kids here in the United States that our focus went to the Gulf Coast region, and that's where most of our first donations took place.
MARTIN: I want to hear about that in a minute too, but I do want to get to Stella. So, Stella, how long have you been playing softball?
SMITH: I've been playing softball since I was seven, but I also played t-ball when I was, like, four or five years old.
MARTIN: And so when Hurricane Sandy hit, I know that that had to have been hard and scary. Where were you staying? I know you couldn't stay in your house, so what did you do?
SMITH: Well, for the first two weeks we stayed with my aunt in Massapequa and then we found a basement that we could stay in with my dad's friend's wife and her two children, so we stayed there until just the past month or so when we moved back in.
MARTIN: Wow. And what happened to all your stuff?
SMITH: Well, actually, all my stuff is upstairs, so I got to save most of it, but my brother and my mom and my dad lost everything, so I knew I had to stay strong and be supportive of them, so...
MARTIN: But it wasn't as - yeah. That is hard, but what does it mean to you to be back playing with your team? Is it a time when you can kind of put all the bad stuff away?
SMITH: It is because it feels like nothing can go wrong. My feelings can't get hurt because everyone's included and it just - everyone is so great and I just love my whole team.
MARTIN: Well, David, what about that? I mean you can imagine where some people are saying, after an emergency or after something goes wrong, what kids really need is food, shelter, you know, and a place to go to school. What do you say to that?
RHODE: We agree 100 percent that, you know, baseball has to have its right place and certainly in our situation we've been involved with natural disasters, not by choice but because people contact us and ask for assistance. So our first priority of business is making sure all of those humanitarian needs are met, but what we've experienced, first in New Orleans with Hurricane Katrina and all the way through Hurricane Sandy is it's very difficult and sometimes nonexistent for these sort of quality of life, extracurricular activities because communities and families sometimes have to prioritize and kids are asked to sacrifice in a lot of situations and we really don't think that that's fair.
And after a storm or after some other event, your life is turned upside down and sometimes for kids, the kids that we've met, the most important thing on their mind is really, you know, what about my game on Tuesday, or what about my glove? And so we think it's great to give kids just that simple activity, the simple sense of joy of going out and playing.
MARTIN: I understand that initially, you thought that your efforts would mainly go to places that are already baseball crazy - like the Dominican Republic or Puerto Rico. But I understand that you found that that's actually not the case.
RHODE: Yeah. So we found that some of the greatest needs and some of the greatest interest in pitching for baseball and in playing baseball is from folks that are in Africa or folks that are in Eastern Europe - places that are just discovering baseball or playing for the first time. So from our perspective playing a role in that for us is a tremendous privilege. We love seeing the pictures and the videos and hearing the stories of kids playing in a particular area for the very first time.
MARTIN: How many countries have you served so far, do you think?
RHODE: It's just north of 75 countries.
MARTIN: Seventy-five countries.
RHODE: Yes.
MARTIN: Wow. I know that you have to make sure the teams actually have a place to play. But do you also make sure that they have somebody to play against?
RHODE: Well, I mean ultimately in many situations it's a league or it's a program, so there may be four, six, eight teams that are starting at a given point in time. Or we do want to understand that so it could be a school-based program where we are helping a given team at a given school, but there are six schools in their community - for lack of a better term - that they'll be playing against. So we just want to learn about them, understand their story and make sure it's going to fit in. But in some situations it's as simple as a teacher at a school or a teacher in a town or a coach in a town that wants to teach baseball and playing competitive games isn't the first thing on their mind, it's really getting a kids' exposure to the game.
MARTIN: And what about someplace close to home, like in the New York area, the northeastern area, that was affected by Hurricane Sandy? Would you just automatically know where the teams are that are probably washed out?
RHODE: Well, we have a number of wonderful strategic partners. We work very closely with the folks at Little League International; we work with Babe Ruth baseball and other sort of national organizations. So if a league that lost something would contact the home office - if you were - so Little League in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, they would refer them to us. In other situations it simply is word-of-mouth, and there are folks that would just search online and they'll want to find out how they might be able to get equipment, so they will do any kind of the search and we come up number one or number two in any kind of an Internet search for making a donation of baseball equipment.
MARTIN: And Stella, when did you play your first game? You've played your first game already, right?
SMITH: We played it a couple of weeks ago and it was against Long Beach.
MARTIN: Do you want to tell me how you did?
SMITH: We did good for our first game. The score was 7-1 for a while, and we made a comeback and ended it with 7-6.
MARTIN: Hey, that's respectable. What was it like to get out there for the first time after not having been able to get together with all your friends for so long?
SMITH: It felt amazing, because I actually felt like I could be part of a team, and call myself part of a team.
MARTIN: And Stella, before we let you go, is there something you could - if you wouldn't mind - from your perspective, could you tell us why it's so important to be able to play and have adults like David try to help to make sure that kids can play?
SMITH: It's really important in my point of view because we need our friends. And as much as we need food and gas and all the things that adults have to worry about, kids worry about it too, and like I know it doesn't seem like that, but we do. And the most important thing to us is if our families are OK, and just being back on the field makes us feel like we don't need to worry about that anymore.
MARTIN: So, Stella, what's the name of your team?
SMITH: It's just Island Park Little League Softball. We are sponsored by Nassau Financial Federal Credit Union and Jewelry by Steven.com.
MARTIN: Yes ma'am. I was going to say could I - what do I say? Go Island Park?
SMITH: Yeah.
MARTIN: All right. Good luck for the rest of the season. Go Island Park?
Stella Smith is a softball player. She's 12 years old and she, as she told you, is from Island Park, New York. She plays for Island Park Little League there. She was kind enough to join us from home. And David Rhode is also with us. He's the executive director of Pitch In For Baseball, that is a non-profit that takes donations of gently used and new equipment and provides it to teams around the world. And he was kind enough to join us from Philadelphia.
David Rhode, thank you so much for joining us. Stella Smith, thank you too.
RHODE: Thank you.
SMITH: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.