bouncing bulldogs

A three-peat for Bouncing Bulldogs
From Staff Reports

CHAPEL HILL -- The Triangle's own Bouncing Bulldogs Rope Skipping Team recently returned from Disney World with some new but familiar-looking souvenirs.

The Bulldogs have won the USA Jump Rope National Championships in Florida for an unprecedented third year in a row.

The Bouncing Bulldogs topped 61 competing teams from around the country at the event held last weekend in Orlando, Fla. The Bulldogs' 48 members, ages 9-18, brought home a program record 123 medals, 57 of which were gold, 42 silver and 24 bronze. A perennial powerhouse at the national competition, the Bulldogs shattered their own previous record medal count of 94.

"Winning a national championship once shows that a team has good jumpers, but winning three national championships is a sign of a truly great program," said senior co-captain Anna Holdaway. Additionally, the Bulldogs took home the three major team awards -- Freestyle Champions, Speed Champions and Overall Champions -- for the second year in a row. The Bulldogs are the only team in the USAJR ever to win all three top awards.

At the Grand National Championships, held on Sunday at Disney's MGM Studios, the Bouncing Bulldogs won four additional Grand National Championship trophies: Team Show/Small Group (a four-minute choreographed routine); All-Around Junior Female (Erica Zenn); All-Around Senior Female (Mary Hunter Benton.) and Female Triple Unders (Benton, spinning the rope three times around her body on each jump.)

Bulldog jumpers also won six second-place and six third-place plaques at the Grand National competition -- which was taped by ESPN for an upcoming broadcast -- for Single Rope Speed Relay, Single Rope Pairs Freestyle, Double Dutch Pairs Freestyle, All-Around Junior Female, All-Around Senior Female, All-Around Junior Female, Male Triple Unders, Double Dutch Speed Relay, Female Three-Minute Speed, Female Single Rope Freestyle and Double Dutch Pairs Freestyle.

"'Magical Journey' was our key theme going into nationals this year," noted head coach Ray Fredrick, Jr., a teacher at McDougle Middle School. "None of this would have been possible without the outstanding leadership of our six senior co-captains, Kristen (Bailey), Anna (Holdaway), Rae (Krucoff), Aileen (Sammon), Brianna (Smith-Overman) and Taylor (Williams)."

Sammon felt much the same way.

"We're very fortunate to be a part of the incredible family that is the Bouncing Bulldogs, where every individual -- both new and old -- contributes a great deal to the team," she said.

Nancy Kitterman, parent of first-year jumper Isabella Mezzatesta, said she learned at the national competition that jumping as a sport is more complicated than just skipping over a rope.

"It made me aware of the Bulldog's unique level of depth and extraordinary talent, generated by the leadership of Coach Fredrick and the team captains," Kitterman said.

The Bouncing Bulldogs now head back to their gym in Ram's Plaza to train for the upcoming World Championships in Toronto in July. The Bulldogs are also defending World Champions, having won 123 of the 221 medals earned by the USA Team at the previous World Championships held in Australia in July 2004.

The entire Bouncing Bulldogs Rope Skipping team comprises about 100 youngsters, ages 5 to 20, representing more than 15 schools in the Triangle area, as well as some college underclassmen. The Bouncing Bulldogs will be holding week-long camps throughout the summer and recently produced an instructional DVD, teaching single rope and double dutch skills.

Carol Krucoff and Susan Zenn contributed to this report. For more information about the Bouncing Bulldogs, visit their Web site http://www.bouncingbulldogs.org.

my grandfather captured smoke in D.C.

a reel has been sitting waiting to be converted for some years now. it was finally viewed last night and was captivating to say the least. my grandfather was in a helicopter above D.C. during the riots after MLK was assasinated. you can't see any rioting, but the city is in flames ten blocks from the capital. admist the billows you can see Washington Monuments standing in awe. there are shots of the national guard gearing up (rumor is that the government was denying they were even there). i'm starting a search for all broadcasts airing during those days so I can piece together a nice documentary on the subject. i've been tinkering with some Dylan chords, ala Hurricane to play in the background. maybe these lyrics (the trees are burning/in the city tonight/we are all mourning/he could have been/champion of the world), maybe some clips of a speech called I Have a Dream. MLK was shot on a Thursday. He was working on a Sunday sermon titled, "Why America May Go to Hell." the shots captured by my grandfather are an eerie glimpse of what America may look like in such a place. I look forward to completely this project and sharing it all with you.

Peace,
- jaw

a strange phenomenon

this came to my attention last night.

if you got to http://www.wetcityproductions.com/cheapflights you will find a page I created for the band I'm playing in currently. this is not a ploy to get people to go to the site so calm the fuck down. O.K. so, the band consists of myself and Aleks Zarnitsyn, a crazy russian philosopher who will one day find the answer to the question, Why?

Now that you're intrigued and on the site you should check out the video for Sputnik.

Anyway, if you try googling Cheap Flight to Japan you will never find our site because of the large market for internet airline tickets. so, how do you find our site except being in the know (or in the with, for those of you there)? well, you could do a search for me, Josh Weinstein and you'll find a bunch of sites for other Josh Weinsteins as well as myself or you could search for Aleks Zarnitsyn.

Do this. Search Aleks Zarnitsyn in Google. What did you find?

The last few links on the first page seem like you've found Cheap Flight to Japan, the band, but no. What you have found is a site relating to airline travel, but the content in the Google search is the content on the band's site.

What the fucK?

I'm e-mailing Google now to find out.

continued...

she walks into my life
sunglasses oversized
liz taylor style

courdory and tank top
hanging from her neck
is the butterfly...

a girl with butterfly tales

stare out my window
walking by
is a girl with butterfly tales
and that sweet kiss

walking down milwukee
keep slowing down
to the hips back and forth
swaying in 1/4 time

a scene from An American Office Comedy

Secretary - What was James' last name?

Tech - Peach.

Sec - In the book too?

Tec - I don't know. He was an orphan. He didn't have a last name...

Sec - So, he had this giant adventure with a peach...

Tec - ...And he became James Peach.

Sec - There were others involved beside the peach.

Tec - Insects I think...

Sec - But the peach brought them all together.

Tec - I've never actually read the book. There was a movie. I don't remember them playing up his past.

Sec - So, you met with James Peach.

Tec - Security Specialist, maybe NSA, walks into this "bohemian" cafe looking like he works for the government; he's not hiding anything.

Sec - He's in his own fucking country.

Tec - Right. Every blogger in the house must have been having a field day.

Sec - Did he flash a badge?

Tec - Yeah. What the fuck do I know about government ids? This could have all been an elaborate hoax.

Sec - Paranoid?

Tec - I didn't say anything out of the ordinary.

Sec - Still.

Tec - Whatever.

Sec - Whatever you say.

Tec - It was a thrill don't get me wrong, but from an outsider's pov it was like a scene they don't show on CSI, you know, the ones where the detectives knock on the wrong door, question a guy for 5 minutes, realize he's useless to their case and move on down the hall. I'm on my couch reading the paper while the guy three doors down is slicing up his boss cause she won't fuck him no more.

Sec - I'd probably call myself Niki Knack.

Tec - Where's your sense of adventure?

are you there?

repeated over and over as Oskar Schell stood frozen by the phone. his father. falling with thousands of others in the World Trade Center.

Jonathan Safran Foer's follow up to Everything is Illuminated, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is the story of nine-year-old Oskar Schell and his family who tragically lost Thomas, father, husband and son in the terrorist attacks on 9/11. Coupling haunting images from the attack on New York, Hiroshima, Dresden and the human spirit with visions of hope like the motion sensor window that would detect birds approaching and open before they crashed, Stephen Hawkings under a pear tree at sunset writing to amateur scientist Oskar and familial bonds transcending time and space. Incorporating pictures of our heroes journey, long lost letters from a Grandpa no one has heard from and the feelings of a hopeless romantic Grandmother whose own heroics parallel that of young Oskar, multiple tales unfold before the reader writ with a deft hand, extremely quick wit and incredibly large heart.

Thank you Jonathan for sharing your work with me.

Read this novel today.

moments in time

Listen to the new sound from Benjamin D. Bain