The Rake Magazine

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  • Fashion Strides

    skort.jpgBecause registration just opened for the Twin Cities Marathon (and, as of now, is still open), I’m still stuck on the issue of running fashion. Huge strides (hardy-har!) have been made in this area as of late, with much thanks to the running skort (an Adidas version is seen at left, as modeled by my friend D’Ann during a recent spree at Marathon Sports) and Stella McCartney (see below). And yet, I still see plenty of sweaty saps circling the lakes in their soaked cotton gym shorts–you know, the ones that creep higher and higher up the slicked plump inner thigh until meeting at the center of the crotch. Tsk-tsk.

    main.jpgIn any case, over the past two years, I’ve been very happy to witness the gradual relaxing of standards for running attire. Used to be runners were expected to look dumpy. Not anymore. As a matter of fact, at last week’s TC 1-Mile Race, I spotted the funkiest running getup I’ve seen to date. I almost collapsed under pressure of envy! She was wearing a sports bra and “compression” shorts over this last-season Stella McCartney for Adidas tennis dress. (Sorry about picturing the unattractive mannequin, folks. I wasn’t packing the Elph that day.)

    As far as I’m aware, the only place to see and touch Stella McCartney for Adidas is at the Mall of America’s Paiva store. But for convenience sake, I’ve provided a link to the ShopAdidas selection of stuff from our fair lady Stella. But, since this is also an issue of comfort, the Twin Cities’ finest running specialty stores are currently stocked with all kinds of great-looking, high-performance skorts.

  • Early Indications: Strib to Lose 50 from Newsroom

    Word from the still on-going meeting Star Tribune publisher Par Ridder is holding in the paper’s jam-packed assembly room-cafeteria is that Avista Capital Partners will cut approximately 50 more newsroom jobs within the next two weeks through an enhanced buy-out plan. The plan will compensate employees two weeks for every year of service up to a new maximum of 52 weeks, plus an additional six months health insurance coverage.

    The paper announced on its intranet service that it will seek 145 job cuts from the company as a whole.

    Gallows humor was abundant as Ridder trotted out essentially the same “Business Literacy” computerized slide show he gave last year at the St. Paul Pioneer Press. This is the one where all indicators point down, except of course executive compensation and shareholder value.

    Another story making the rounds this afternoon is a sighting of Ridder out for his morning jog this AM … wearing a St. Paul Pioneer Press t-shirt.

    Ridder’s note to the Strib staff:

    >
    >Employee Meeting Recap
    >by Par Ridder, Publisher and CEO
    >May 7, 2007 – At an all employee meeting today we announced that as part of our ongoing efforts to reduce costs, the Star Tribune will be reducing the workforce by about 145 employees, primarily through a voluntary buyout program. I want to summarize some of the key points from the meeting that give context to this decision. The Star Tribune is in the same situation as most other metropolitan newspapers across the country. Our revenue has been declining for two years now, while expenses have been increasing. Our performance for the first quarter of 2007 was much worse than we anticipated, and there are signs that this trend will not reverse soon. Our revenue decline is primarily due to a steep drop in Classified advertising. We are facing both weak markets in real estate, automotive and employment and a migration of advertising in these categories from print to online. Declining revenue and increasing expenses mean that our profit has dropped substantially these past two years. For us to be a healthy, viable business, we must stabilize this situation-first by getting our costs in line with our revenue. Our costs fall into three main areas: compensation, newsprint and all other. Compensation is by far our largest expense category. In addition to other efforts being made to reduce costs, we have determined that we will need to go down about 145 jobs this year in order to achieve the necessary expense reductions. While we will be looking to reduce newsprint and all other costs as well, we are now faced with the necessity of having to reduce our workforce. Most other major metropolitan newspapers around the country have already taken this step. The senior vice presidents and I have put together a plan that seeks to get the majority of these reductions through voluntary buyouts. Those who are eligible for this voluntary program will be notified. However, if we do not get enough volunteers, we will have to move to layoffs to get the necessary reductions. There also are some job eliminations in this plan. It’s important to understand that our business model has fundamentally changed. This is not a temporary situation but a major shift in the media environment that we will be wrestling with for years to come. As I mentioned in the meeting, dismantling a newspaper is not a strategy. However, cutting costs will allow us to stabilize our business as we work to reallocate resources so we can get the Star Tribune growing again. This summer we will be having all company meetings to create our strategy going forward. Everyone will be invited and I encourage you to attend. From the ownership change to the change in leadership and finally this announcement, this clearly has been a tough few months for everyone. Thank you for your professionalism and hard work as we navigate this difficult time.
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  • Celebrating Jazz, Punk, and Renoir

    MUSIC
    No Frills, Just Thrills

    karrin_allyson.jpgWhat really separates a great singer from the mass of decent voices out there is a certain kind of effortless maturity, a natural grace. When Karrin Allyson sings she does so without pretention, without fanciful ornamentation. Instead, she simple works the song in a genuinely artistic fashion. She tosses in a scat chorus. She sits back on certain beats. She turns from an obvious opportunity to a more meaningful one. This two-time Grammy nominee knows her craft. Allyson has a spectacular voice, and she uses it magnificently, bringing out every layer and expressing every depth of emotion within songs of all genres, from very expressive ballads to upbeat bossa novas, from pop to blues to bebop.

    7 and 9 p.m., Dakota Jazz Club and Restaurant, 1010 Nicollet Ave., Minneapolis; 612-332-1010; $35, $25.

    Listen to Karrin Allyson.

    It’s Dance Night, with an 80s Beat

    flip1.jpgGosh, what do we call this now? The new wave of new wave? I think I’ve lost track here. Thanks to their sloppy brand of scratchy post-post-punk, The Rapture was hailed as a forerunner of the post-punk revival that was taking place in the early 2000s. In 2003 they were dubbed “Post Punk Disco Pioneers,” and now, as “new rave” sweeps the nation, The Rapture provides the soundtrack to old-school technicolour rave nostalgia. We’re not talking glo-sticks here, people. What we’re talking is pure dance-inspiring energy. We’re talking upbeat. We’re talking vigor. And believe it or not, we’re not talking noise. The Rapture might be doing their punk-disco best to get us on that dance-floor, but they sacrifice nothing of their wry lyrical angst in the process. Luke Jenner’s asperous vocals and Safer’s melancholic wailing keep the underbelly dark. Basically, yes, life might suck, but get thee to a dance floor and just go mental. The Rapture is joined tonight by another band with a get-up-and-dance attitude and a superbly trashy punk mentality, synth pop band Shiny Toy Guns. Simultaneously retroactive and futuristic, Shiny Toy Guns blends seductive femme-fatale vocals with gritty analog beats and system-igniting synths.

    8 p.m., Fine Line Music Cafe, 318 1st Ave. N., Minneapolis; 612-338-8100; $18.

    Listen to The Rapture.
    Listen to Shiny Toy Guns.

    You Can’t Go Wrong with Frigid Primates

    Arctic73.jpgIf the new dance-punk-thing just isn’t for you, then perhaps you need some freezing monkeys. You can never go wrong with monkeys. I mean, hell, these guys are the real deal. They’re even from the U.K. That still means something, right? In a nutshell, the Arctic Monkeys are part of the indie rock scene alongside similar contemporary guitar bands such as The Libertines (minus the druggy death glow), The Futureheads, and Franz Ferdinand. The frigid monkeys wrap a taut punk rock approach in pop melodies and tomes of adolescent growing pains. Everybody loves growing pains.

    8 p.m., First Avenue, 701 First Avenue N., Minneapolis; 612-332-1775; $25.

    Listen to the Arctic Moneys.

    BOOKS AND AUTHORS
    Art-Related Fiction

    2421642959.jpgIf dancing isn’t your thing, you might be looking for something a bit more low-key for this gloomy Monday. You’re in luck. Bestselling author Susan Vreeland will be reading from her new novel, Luncheon of the Boating Party, an exploration of Renoir’s painting by the same name. Vreeland, two-time winner of the Theodor Geisel Award, is known for her historical fiction on art-related themes.

    7:30 p.m., Barnes & Noble Booksellers at Galleria, 3225 W. 69th St., Edina; 952-920-1060.

  • Shroomin'

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    Every year I get the fever to forage. The thought of walking around a park for a couple of hours and coming out with an armload of wild edibles is like winning the lottery to me. Pirate like, even.

    Today I am especially craving mushrooms, morels. Maybe it was the overdose of cheap and tawdry guacamole over the weekend that has me dwelling on dusky, earthy flavors. I want rich and buttery soft.

    I missed the mushroom class at Whitewater State Park this weekend, but it remains one of the best places to hunt morels. It may seem odd, but as mushroom hunting is a secretive sport (to the lone hunter go the spoils) there are few public gatherings and events. The Minnesota Mycological Society is a great resource, but you need to join up to go on their forays. Understandable.

    Personally, I’d rather go out on my own, on a soggy Monday when others are at work, and trust in fortune.

  • Lileks the Reporter? Hard to Imagine.

    As previously mentioned, James Lileks, was one of five Star Tribune columnists summoned into meetings last week and, uh, “offered” the opportunity to volunteer to give up their columnizing for straight reporting gigs.

    As Lileks himself writes here, it seems he was given something firmer than an offer, and his mini-column, “The Daily Quirk”, will cease publication in two weeks, and, if I’m following this correctly, he’ll begin beat reporting about the internet, which as he notes is a whole different schmeckler than writing ON the internet.

    As someone who was always baffled by how the Strib used Lileks — from the “Backfence” to the “Quirk”, with no long(er) form feature writing or, better yet, off-beat right-wing political punditry in between — this “reassignment” smells like the familiar tactic of humiliating someone to the point they leave on their own.

  • Night Falls, And Keeps On Falling

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    Waking, by reason of their continual cares, fears, sorrows, and dry brains, is a symptom that much crucifies melancholy men.

    —Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy

    All he could do was transcribe the interminable babbling voice of the night, the insinuating perverse voice of the demons.

    —Pietro Citati, Kafka

    What if an individual is perceiving a daydream and a series of external sensory inputs at precisely the same time, and has lost the capacity to distinguish one from the other? What happens to his perceptual world? Clearly he will be peopling his universe of awareness with elements that are altogether private, presences generated from within which for him will be a genuine part of the real world; these are what he sees, or hears, or is otherwise sensing. And should he then be unable to differentiate these from his everyday perceptions, then indeed he may move into a haunted, nightmarish world, and be a very troubled human being.

    —Joseph D. Noshpitz, “Reality Testing: A Neuropsychological Fantasy,” in Comprehensive Psychology

    A common notion about the relationship of sleep to mental health is that total sleep loss…deranges the mind and may result in some kind of breakdown….When serious sleep disturbances are present, as they almost always are in the mentally ill, the patient’s history often indicates that the sleep disturbance preceeded the actual break from reality.

    —William C. Dement, Some Must Watch While Some Must Sleep –Exploring the World of Sleep

    On particularly dark nights the seven black rabbits that live somewhere in the bushes in my backyard emerge from their burrow or bunker (or whatever it is that rabbits live in) and move about upright, staggering and lurching around on their back legs.

    It seems to me that they’re uncommonly large for rabbits. Some of them probably stand at least four feet high. There’s nothing even remotely human about their movements.

    They were particularly active in the winter months, and I spent a good deal of time watching them closely from the darkness of my room. One night, quite inexplicably, I saw them hang a puppet from a tree by its neck. I eventually concluded that they were members of some kind of rabbit version of a religious order. I’d see them coming and going from my garage at all hours. I gathered they were building tiny coffins.

    I surmised this last bit of information from the fact that I had seen what were unmistakably funeral processions and burials. I’d watched as the rabbits shouldered caskets through the snow in the moonlight, and dug holes with their long legs. It was clear that my backyard was becoming a rather crowded burial ground.

    What exactly the rabbits were burying remained a mystery for a number of months, until the night I saw several of them drag a baby across the yard and disappear into the garage.

    They’ve been a bit scarce of late, now that the snow’s gone, but I have occasionally seen them out there milling around the garage or skulking furtively up and down the alley. The last time I saw them I could have sworn they were smoking cigarettes.

    I’m not sure how exactly one would go about negotiating with rabbits, but I would very much like to strike some sort of deal that would involve these creatures delivering to me a living infant. I’ve wanted a little bitty baby of my own for quite some time now, ever since I lost contact with so many children of my acquaintance.

    Should I somehow manage to procure a child from these animals, I shall name it either Ezra or Ezrena (or perhaps Theodore), and I will love the child and it shall be the King of Nothing Never, and a keeper of beasts, and full of joy.

    The victim of insomnia, having seen the slowness of the dawn, arises with every nerve tattered and the capacity for happiness ruined. His morning is a desolation.

    —Arnold Bennett, Things That Have Interested Me. Third Series. 1926

    Melancholics are not so sleepless as maniacs, yet the want of sleep is often an early and prominent symptom. They do not readily sleep, and if they do, they awake soon to be tormented by the vilest misery that it is possible for human creatures to endure.

    —A.W, MacFarlane, M.D., Insomnia and its Therapeutics. 1891.

    Under [insomnia’s] influence injurious changes are permitted by the patient to be made in his daily habits; pursuits which formerly engaged his attention no longer interest him; even important business concerns are sacrificed; and against such tendencies no pre-existing vigour of intellect will afford any defence; the strongest minds (intellectually considered) may sink into apathy and feebleness.

    —James Russell, M.D., “On Sleeplessness.” British Medical Journal, November 16, 1861.

    After dinner, my friend drove me, in a carriage, some five miles back into the country –the greater part of the way, along the margin of Migunticook Lake, and under a terrific precipice, whose boulders every moment threaten destruction. In fact, the whole of a bright sunny day, cooled with healthful zephyrs, was spent in pleasurable excitement. Interesting conversation beguiled the evening; and, after family worship, I sunk to rest in a luxurious curtained bed. Ere long, I slept; and, about five o’clock next morning, was awakened by the crowing of the cock. This was the only night’s sleep I have had these last six years and seven months; so help me God. Since then, my nights have been tedious, as usual, without sleep, and some of them distressing.

    —“An Example of Protracted Wakefulness,” Boston Medical and Surgical Journal. July 31, 1845.

    Experience in private practice, and extended observation in the wards of general and lunatic hospitals, have taught me that the ordinary hypnotics are frequently unreliable, and that in some instances their use is attended by results as bad as, if not of more serious consequence than, the conditions they were intended to remove. I do not wish by this somewhat sweeping assertion to be understood to condemn the ordinary hypnotics, or to doubt their efficacy in suitable cases; but it seems to me that we run great danger of becoming routinists in the matter of sleeping-draughts….Like most of my fellow practitioners, I constantly meet patients who have run through the whole gamut of sleep-producing drugs, and find their last condition, in many instances, worse than their first.

    —Edward N. Brush, M.D., “Some Clinical Experiences With Insomnia,” The Practitioner, January 1889.

  • Lost Weekend

    Things would seem to be trending downward at the moment, wouldn’t you say?

    The Twins have scored a total of 12 runs in their last five games, and managed just five in the weekend series with Boston. Their best hitter is headed for the disabled list –he’s already there, actually. The reigning MVP is batting .150 (and slugging .225) with runners in scoring position. Sidney Ponson is still in the starting rotation, and still finding a way to allow almost two base runners every inning.

    Sure, Torii Hunter has a 21-game hitting streak, and has been tearing it up, but what difference has that made? I’ll tell you: None. Or basically none. The team has lost two straight series, and five of its last seven games. The schedule is increasingly inhospitable, and if things don’t get turned around in a hurry the Twins could find themselves looking at a double-digit deficit in the Central by the end of May.

    It’s all very discouraging right now, but last year demonstrated that things can indeed turn around in a hurry. Of course most organizations would be lucky to have a season like that every twenty years, but what the hell.

    If you’re not pissed about the whole Roger Clemens charade, something’s seriously wrong with you. The handling of that announcement today was straight out of the Vince McMahon playbook. I guess the only real surprise was that Clemens didn’t emerge from Monument Park in a cloud of smoke during the seventh-inning stretch. Or, you know, they could have had the Rocket parachute into the ballpark and land on the pitcher’s mound.

    But, no, truly, the way the Yankees did handle it was actually worse. It was too hokey and sickening to even be entertaining. The man is forty-five years old, and New York is going to pay him $20 million to pitch four months of the season. The whole thing is just wrong, wrong, wrong.

    It’s so fucking wrong.

    Blow hamstring, blow.

    That’s all I have to say about that.

  • Stribbers Await Monday Meeting

    Just to give you an idea of the anxiety hanging over their weekend, Star Tribune employees left the building Friday hoping for the best, but expecting the worst from announcements scheduled for 3 pm Monday, (tomorrow).

    Operating as per usual with little to no information, rumors were that new owners Avista Capital Partners, via their hirelings, editor Nancy Barnes and/or publisher Par Ridder, would reveal their need for new staff reductions, beyond those taken in the voluntary buy-outs of late February.

    The most repeated rumor — rumor, I say — had Avista requiring 60 positions out of the newsroom and 200 company-wide. As draconian as that sounds, many other similar-sized papers have seen as much in recent weeks, as owners slash staff well ahead of revenue declines in order to assure investor profits through the near-term.

    A second rumor had Avista fattening up the previous standard buy-out offer of two weeks for every year served up to a maximum of 40, up to a maximum of 52, with maybe some lingering medical benefits.

    It is not known if Mr. Ridder will take the buy-out offer.

  • Second Round Playoff Previews

    With Houston and Utah still to be decided by a 7th game, my predictive powers on first-round series stands at 6-1, with the Golden State upset the lone blemish (and if you read what I wrote, I knew the Warriors would give the Mavs plenty of problems). In the East, I even had the number of games right, except for calling the Bulls in 5 or 6 over the Heat rather than the four game sweep.

    But enough smug preening. Today’s genius is tomorrow’s fool, as I may well be about to demonstrate with the following picks.

    Detroit (1) vs. Chicago (5)
    Without slighting the epic Suns-Spurs series, this is the second-round matchup that intrigues me the most, in part because my take seems so much at odds with conventional wisdom. Specificially, how are the Bulls not the faster, deeper, and perhaps even more talented team here?

    The marquee personal duel is between small forwards Tayshaun Prince and Luol Deng, and without question it’s a dandy. Prince ranks with Bruce Bowen and Shane Battier as the best on-ball defenders in the game today, while Deng is quickening into a star right before our eyes over the past year. At the other end, Prince may be the Pistons’ second-best offensive option to Chauncey Billups when the game is on the line, but will have difficulty with Deng, who is no slouch on D and is one of the few players with a comparably enormous wingspan.

    It’s hard to imagine both Prince and Deng not coming up big–there’ll be no dominance either way here. By contrast, the most volatile matchup may be at the shooting guard spot, between Rip Hamilton and Ben Gordon. Both are deadly jump-shooters, of course, but until recently you’d have to give Hamilton the decided edge, both because of the four-inch height differential (6-7 to 6-3) and for the fact that Rip has a nonstop motor and Gordon has generally been, shall we say, inconsistent with his effort on the defensive end. Like many of the Bulls, Gordon has stepped up all facets of his game in recent weeks, however, and is shooting with a sublime confidence that will spell danger for Detroit if Hamilton can’t dissuade it early. It is vital for Detroit’s prospects that Hamilton school Gordon at the other end, drawing fouls on either Gordon or Ben Wallace with his penetration while mixing in those mid-range jumpers Pistons coach Flip Saunders is so adept at choreographing.

    Okay, once you get past Prince and Hamilton, where is the Pistons’ team speed? Billups is built like a tank and will occasionally be unstoppable when his long-range jumper is flowing, but Kirk Hinrich is a worthy foil, physical enough not to get manhandled the way Billups abuses most opposing points, and a smart, tenacious defender who will frustrate Billups’ ball distribution and force him into taking tough shots. At the other end, if Hinrich regains the shooting touch that abandoned him in the Heat series (one of the precious few things that went wrong for Chicago), then the Pistons are in trouble.

    Move on to center and power forward. In the pivot, Ben Wallace and Chris Webber are an apples and oranges tandem; I’d call it a big edge for the Bulls. I understand how Webber has florished under Saunders, but unless Hamilton and Prince are gulping rebounds, the Pistons better be shooting lights out, because Webber isn’t grabbing many over Big Ben and PJ Brown will box out Rasheed Wallace all day long. I imagine Saunders’ plan will be to spot up Webber for midrange jumpers at the elbow and off pick and rolls, while positioning ‘Sheed for treys in the corner and outside the key–the Bulls will either have to bring Ben Wallace and PJ out to guard them, play zone, rotate frequently, or concede the open looks. I think Scott Skiles will have Wallace contest Webber because he’s quick enough to recover, and wait and see if ‘Sheed can hit long-range. If he does, Skiles can go to Nocioni on ‘Sheed, provided Nocioni’s plantar troubles are manageable.
    With a fundamental horse like Brown and a persistent, clandestine-fouling gadfly like Nocioni on him, how long do you think it will be before ‘Sheed pops his cork? Throw in having to joust for boards with Big Ben, and ‘Sheed ability to play within himself becomes a problematic dilemma for Detroit.

    But the biggest reason why I think the Bulls will win this series is their superior depth. Commentators like to talk about Detroit’s front-line squadron, but only Antonio McDyess is a quality reserve. Dale Davis is old and slow, a bad matchup versus the Bulls, and Saunders lacks confidence in Nazr Mohammad. It bears noting that aside from McDyess, no bench player got more than 50 minutes in the four games versus Orlando; why would Saunders willingly give his scrubs more burn against the Bulls?

    Meanwhile, Chicago has the numbers to run and gun and wear down the older Piston starters. Not only are Deng, Hinrich, Nocioni, Gordon and Ben Wallace all comfortable in an up-and-down game, but bench guys Chris Duhon, Thabo Sefolosha and Tyrus Thomas likewise thrive in uptempo settings. Even at the bottom of the Bulls bench you’ve got defensive specialist Adrian Griffin with a ton of playoff experience, and serviceable backup center Malik Allen.

    Unless Hamilton decisively wins his matchup with Gordon, and/or ‘Sheed and Webber are converting bushels of open jumpers, I think the Bulls will steadily put down the throttle and wear the Pistons away. Chicago in 5 or 6.

    Cleveland (2) vs. New Jersey (6)
    The two first-round series I watched the least were Cleveland-Washington and Toronto-New Jersey, so the take here will be necessarily fuzzy. Nevertheless, this series seems to be a referendum on the intelligence of the Cavs generally and LeBron James in particular. About the only way the Nets win is if they entice the Cavs into a track meet that maximizes the talent of their glorious open court stars Jason Kidd, Vince Carter, and Richard Jefferson. A super athlete like LeBron is going to be sorely tempted to take the bait; ditto Larry Hughes and perhaps even Drew Gooden and, off the bench, Donyell Marshall.

    Here’s why that’s idiotic: Who on the Nets can guard Z Ilgauskas in paint? Who can box out Gooden? Jason Collins, Mikki Moore and Josh Boone is what New Jersey has in response. Z and Gooden both shot 60 percent or better from the field against Washington. Working patiently in half-court sets and getting feeds from LeBron and Hughes in half-court penetration, they should do it again against New Jersey. Meanwhile, Toronto’s point guards went crazy on offense against Kidd and company–why shouldn’t Hughes be able to do the same? And we haven’t even talked about Lebron getting his 35, even just working in the flow of the offense.

    The Nets’ Jason Kidd averaged a triple-double in the six games against the Raptors, but you can expect both Larry Hughes and Aleksander Pavlovic to deter him more than TJ Ford and Jose Calderon, with Eric Snow needing to provide 10-12 minutes of quality coverage too. How many games New Jersey wins will depend on whether Carter goes crazy for a game or two, whether Cleveland stupidly decides to run with the Nets, and whether Z and Gooden collectively pull one of their occasional no-shows in the low block. Playing smart, the Cavs have the power to put this away in five. I’ll fudge it a little and say Cleveland in 5 or 6.

    Phoenix (2) vs. San Antonio (3)
    This is the heavyweight match, with the winner immediately stamped as the favorite to become the next NBA champion. What was most impressive about Phoenix’s 5-game blitz of the Lakers was its defensive prowess, and it’s true that in Raja Bell and Shawn Marion, the Suns have a pair of rugged, versatile components to throw at opposing offenses. As the epitome of the new uptempo small-ball style, they not only have the best floor general for it in Steve Nash, but have the most evolved defense when executing a full-bore transition game on offense.

    But as Dallas discovered to their chagrin in the first round, even potentially great teams run into clubs who just happen to match up in a manner that exposes their weaknesses, and the Spurs certainly qualify as the Suns’ nemesis. For one thing, as they proved against Denver, San Antonio recovers to defend transition better than anyone in the league–not only do they scamper back four or five strong, but they’re already communicating how to defend switches and other proactive gambits to disrupt penetration, ball movement and open shots. Most clubs are in scramble mode versus Phoenix’s fast break; far more often than any other team, the Spurs are playing chess with it.

    Secondly, the Spurs offense is vastly underrated, and reminiscent of those similarly underrated Houston Rockets championship teams of the 90s, the first club to fully utilize the inside-outside aspects of the three-point threat. To really make it go, you need a multi-talented big man capable of an almost automatic basket whenever he’s not double-teamed, yet with enough instinct and court vision to dish to cutters and three-point shooters–Houston had Hakeem, the Spurs have Duncan. You also need not just one or even two but a group of players who can nail the trey from various points on the floor. Houston had Cassell and Kenny Smith and Robert Horry, and the Spurs have Michael Finley and Bruce Bowen and Manu Ginobili and Brent Barry and, not incidentally, Robert Horry. For the icing on the cake, San Antonio also has two of the best penetrators in the game in Tony Parker and Ginobili, the perfect combo to draw fouls and otherwise burn opponents who are flying around trying to defend both Duncan down low and all those bombadiers outside: Next thing they know, Parker and Ginobili and blowing past them. Raja Bell will be an enormous boon to preventing some of this, and Leandro Barbosa and Marion are both lightning quick, but it won’t be enough to handle Duncan down low and still choke off the outside bombs.

    As good as San Antonio is, of course, Phoenix is far from helpless. Nash still can’t defend anyone worth a damn (Barbosa needs to play plenty on Parker), but when he’s in rhythm, it really is the greatest offensive show in basketball today. Nash is no Nowitzki–when it matters most, he’ll be a factor. Barbosa is the fastest player in the NBA. Stoudamire may be the fastest center. Marion is a superb finisher who plays four inches taller than his actual 6-7. Bell abets his shut-down D with a deadly three-point shot. The wild card? Boris Diaw, who has generously yielded much of last year’s mojo to Amare in the Suns’ grand scheme of things, but who needs to get himself more involved both in doubling Duncan and in burying the midrange jumper with the alacrity he showed in the 2006 playoffs.

    If the Suns play their A game, this will be a phenomenal series, as good as last year’s Spurs-Mavs classic, that will go 7 games and could swing either way. I think San Antonio will compel Phoenix to play their A- game, with the result being the Spurs in 6.

  • Strib Bloodletting Begins Anew. Ridder Still Secure as Publisher.

    Thursday afternoon at the Star Tribune saw the paper’s four metro columnists, Doug Grow, Nick Coleman, Katherine Kersten and Cheryl “CJ” Johnson called in to separate meetings with editors Nancy Barnes and Scott Gillespie and told, in so many words, that the paper was looking to scale back the number of columnists and would any of them care to raise their hands and volunteer for reassignment to the paper’s suddenly thin — and getting thinner — ranks of street-level reporters?

    There were, as far as I can tell, no immediate takers. Later it was learned that quasi-metro columnist, James Lileks, was also given the same message.

    This sort of scale-back/down-sizing/gutting has been anticipated ever since the new owners, Avista Capital Partners took over and after the round of voluntary buy-outs that clipped 24 positions from the payroll two months ago. Widespread assumption in the Strib newsroom is that fewer columnists will soon be matched with fewer theater critics, fewer film critics and perhaps — all though this is very hard to imagine — fewer sports reporters. (Veteran NBA reporter, Steve Aschburner, has already left the paper.)

    Meanwhile, newly-arrived publisher, Par Ridder, the target of a much-publicized lawsuit accusing him essentially of industrial espionage, remains secure in his position.