Monday – 01 February 2010
Not only is it the start of a new work week, it’s the beginning of Black History Month. (More on this below.)

This past weekend was pretty well chock full of action. Saturday, I ran another ‘Clix tournament at Dr. Volt’s. I stole borrowed creatively acquired liberated in the name of the people (yes, that’s much better) the format from – HeroClix Extreme Wrestling Federation:

Each player’s team was comprised of six (6) figures, one at up to each of the following values: 75, 125, 175, 225, 275 and 325 points. Each player rolled a d6 to see which of their figures started the game – this created a few interesting dynamics, as some players’ lowest-point figures went against others’ highest-point figures.  🙂 Whenever a figure took damage from an attack, it had to “tag out,” so the player would roll the die to see which figure replaced the “old” one.

There were eleven players (ten teams again, as the two youngest played as a team). The format seemed to go over quite well. I wasn’t sure that I would get a chance to play, but I took a team, just in case:

  • 75 points – Gamora
  • 125 points – Susan Richards (Skrull)
  • 175 points – Ms. Marvel (Skrull)
  • 225 points – Crispus Allen (LE), with Fortitude
  • 275 points – Apocalypse, with Fortitude
  • 325 points – Superman (Earth-2, Crisis)

It was a good thing that I took them, as one player had to leave early and I played a bye round. Wayne, the player I faced off against, tossed in the Malice Feat

I have determined that I am not a fan of this card… at least not in one-figure-on-the-table format. It’s a killer. But, it’s one that I might have to consider using in future games. I won the game, pretty handily – I only lost Cris Allen, but Wayne got the win, because of the bye.

After gaming was done, I headed home and changed. SaraRules and I then headed downtown for dinner (Olive Garden) and an evening at the symphony. They performed Shostakovich’ Tenth Symphony, under new Music Director Thierry Fischer. The program consisted of:

  • Dmitri Shostakovich – Festive Overture in A Major, op. 96
  • Johannes Brahms – Concerto for Violin in D Major, op. 77
  • Dmitri Shostakovich – Symphony No. 10 in E Minor, op. 93

I’d never heard the Festive Overture, but it was the perfect piece to introduce “the new sound” of the Utah Symphony under Mr. Fischer’s guidance. It was brash, a bit ballsy and afforded the audience a great presentation of the orchestra’s range, from pianissimo to fortissimo. Mr. Fischer is a… dynamic… conductor.  I am looking forward to the seeing where Utah Symphony goes in the coming seasons.

Sunday, I woke up and headed to the local Borders to get in some drawrin’ time. I haven’t sat down to seriously focus on drawing in over a year. That’s bad. I took a few ‘Clix figures with me as models – they don’t complain about holding poses and they are easy to carry from place to place.  After a couple hours, I was satisfied that I’d made a decent foray back into the realm of applying pencil to paper.

Next, SaraRules and I made a pilgrimage to The Garden of Sweden. We went.  We shopped. We left… without cinnamon rolls. *shakes fist*

From there, we dropped off the new stuff at home and then headed up to the in-laws’ for dinner and the Pro Bowl. After they were done, we returned home… and did our taxes. Yay.

Chew on This: Food For Thought – Black History Month
As I mentioned above, today kicks off Black History Month. With that in mind, I thought that it would be interesting to do something along the lines of “The ABCs of Black History.” Today, we will kick off with The A&T Four:

On, 01 February 1960, Franklin McCain, Jibreel Khazan (formerly known as Ezell Blair Jr.) and Joseph McNeil and the late David Richmond sat at a segregated lunch counter in the Greensboro, North Carolina, Woolworth’s store.

The store’s manager told his staff to leave the students alone, hoping they would eventually leave. However, Harris grew nervous that violence would soon ensue so he went to the police. Although he did not have the men arrested, assuming their demonstration would soon end, he did have several police officers stationed in the store.

The following morning the four students, along with 23 other men and 4 women showed up at Woolworth’s to protest. As the days went on, more and more students participated in the Woolworth sit-in. The number of students grew so large that by February 5, four days after the sit-in began, 300 students arrived at Woolworth’s to take part in the peaceful protest. On February 6, tensions mounted between the blacks and whites at the lunch counter. As white reaction to the demonstration grew more violent, a bomb scare forced the protesters out of Woolworth’s and C.L. Harris closed his store for over two weeks.

All four would emerge unscathed and eventually be recognized as heroes of the civil rights movement.

For more information, see http://www.sitins.com

Stray Toasters

Namaste.