SOUTHERN SECTION GIRLS’ BASKETBALL DIVISION 1 First round, Thursday Huntington Beach 53, Aliso Niguel 48 Rolling Hills Prep 64, Orange Lutheran 40 Brentwood 53, La Canada 49 Glendora 61, Rancho Verde 35 King 70, Sonora 17 JSerra 45, Downey 44 Redondo 73, Gardena Serra 58 Chaminade 60, St. Mary’s Academy 47 Eastvale Roosevelt 61, Riverside North 39 Camarillo 72, Alemany 40 Keppel 66, Chino Hills 41
Second round, Saturday, 7 p.m. Huntington Beach at #1 Harvard-Westlake Rolling Hills Prep at Esperanza Brentwood at West Torrance Glendora at #4 Bishop Montgomery #3 King at JSerra Chaminade at Redondo Camarillo at Eastvale Roosevelt Keppel at #2 Troy
DIVISION 2AA First round, Thursday unless noted Valencia 52, El Dorado 19 Los Altos 71, Foothill 53 Flintridge Prep 50, Arcadia 44 North Torrance 59, Oxnard 54 St. Paul 68, Crossroads 49 Pasadena 48, Canyon Country Canyon 38 Millikan 64, Vista Murrieta 36 St. Anthony 74, Cajon 40 (Wednesday) Ventura 42, Crescenta Valley 37 Fairmont Prep 71, Anaheim Canyon 42 Bonita 67, Corona Santiago 60 Village Christian 60, Buena 49 Marlborough 49, Santa Barbara 33
Second round, Saturday, 7 p.m. Valencia at #1 Orangewood Academy Flintridge Prep at Los Altos St. Paul at North Torrance #4 Millikan at Pasadena St. Anthony at #3 Saugus Ventura at Fairmont Prep Bonita at Valley View Village Christian at #2 Marlborough
DIVISION 2A First round, Thursday Culver City 69, Walnut 45 Cantwell-Sacred Heart 47, Irvine University 40 Summit 74, Leuzinger 72 Whittier Christian 59, Segerstrom 43 Arroyo Valley 65, Lakewood 56 Burbank Burroughs 51, St. Bonaventure 48 Tesoro 42, Sunny Hills 32 Bishop Amat 60, Northview 47 Oak Hills 60, Rancho Cucamonga 52
Second round, Saturday, 7 p.m. Culver City at #1 San Clemente Summit at Cantwell-Sacred Heart Whittier Christian at Tustin Arroyo Valley at #4 Burbank Burroughs Tesoro at #3 Peninsula Mayfair at Yucaipa Bishop Amat at El Rancho Oak Hills at #2 Oaks Christian
DIVISION 3AA First round, Thursday Santa Monica 58, Ayala 48 Ridgecrest Burroughs 70, Patriot 54 Villa Park 55, Woodbridge 26 Twentynine Palms 50, Lompoc Cabrillo 33 San Juan Hills 59, Chaparral 49 Lancaster 59, Thousand Oaks 51 Corona del Mar 58, Cerritos 43 South Torrance 40, Victor Valley 32 Crean Lutheran 67, Knight 43 Covina 68, Lompoc 54 Laguna Hills 82, Oak Park 60 El Segundo 46, La Serna 34 Santa Fe 44, Hueneme 43 Murrieta Mesa 72, San Jacinto 37 Sage Hill 61, Don Lugo 55 Mira Costa 45, Ribet Academy 19
Second round, Saturday, 7 p.m. #1 Santa Monica at Ridgecrest Burroughs Villa Park at Twentynine Palms San Juan Hills at Lancaster #4 South Torrance at Corona del Mar #3 Crean Lutheran at Covina Laguna Hills at El Segundo Murrieta Mesa at Santa Fe #2 Mira Costa at Sage Hill
DIVISION 3A First round, Thursday Long Beach Wilson 62, Marina 19 Bell Gardens 48, San Dimas 32 La Quinta 59, Beaumont 35 Royal 76, South Pasadena 48 West Covina 61, Hart 51 Pioneer 61, Burbank Providence 50 Torrance 46, Garden Grove 45 Yucca Valley 60, Temple City 43 Viewpoint 47, Fountain Valley 32 Riverside Poly 57, Rosemead 47 Anaheim 65, Beckman 47 Grace Brethren 68, Chadwick 43 Chino 79, Gabrielino 43 Hemet 42, Dominguez 33 Hesperia 51, Hillcrest 42 Eisenhower 53, Cerritos Valley Christian 31 Second round, Saturday, 7 p.m. Bell Gardens at #1 Long Beach Wilson Royal at La Quinta Pioneer at West Covina #4 Yucca Valley at Torrance Riverside Poly at #3 Viewpoint Anaheim at Grace Brethren Chino at Hemet #2 Eisenhower at Hesperia
DIVISION 4AA First round, Thursday Paloma Valley 73, Schurr 42 Citrus Valley 48, Garden Grove Santiago 42 Highland 47, Pilibos 31 Whitney 32, Bassett 29 Westlake 65, Norwalk 51 Barstow 55, Moreno Valley 54 Santa Clara 61, Godinez 32 La Salle 48, St. Pius X-St. Matthias 35 Xavier Prep 48, Coachella Valley 35 Portola 40, Arroyo 24 Orange Vista 60, Duarte 40 Holy Martyrs 54, Westminster La Quinta 39 Montclair 69, Bloomington Christian 45 Riverside Notre Dame 74, Big Bear 27 Pasadena Poly 47, Rancho Alamitos 32 Ontario Christian 67, Garey 47
Second round, Saturday, 7 p.m. #1 Paloma Valley at Citrus Valley Highland at Whitney Westlake at Barstow Santa Clara at #4 La Salle #3 Xavier Prep at Portola Holy Martyrs at Orange Vista Montclair at Riverside Notre Dame Pasadena Poly at #2 Ontario Christian
DIVISION 4A First round, Thursday Sherman Oaks Notre Dame 71, Kaiser 30 Western Christian 64, Saddleback 59 Silverado 54, Sherman Indian 35 Shadow Hills 56, Mesa Grande Academy 33 Shalhevet 64, California Lutheran 28 Mary Star 40, Sacred Heart 30 Jurupa Hills 60, St. Monica Academy 47 Campbell Hall 65, Oakwood 50 Paramount 46, Bishop Conaty-Loretto 38 Quartz Hill 71, Newbury Park Adventist 32 Aquinas 44, St. Genevieve 43 Immaculate Heart 54, Grand Terrace 49 Cate 62, Costa Mesa 29 Capistrano Valley 50, CAMS 36 Milken 33, Cobalt 27 Pasadena Marshall 50, Sierra Vista 28
Second round, Saturday, 7 p.m. #1 Sherman Oaks Notre Dame at Western Christian Shadow Hills at Silverado Mary Star at Shalhevet Jurupa Hills at #4 Campbell Hall Quartz Hill at #3 Paramount Immaculate Heart at Aquinas Cate at Capistrano Valley Milken at #2 Pasadena Marshall
DIVISION 5AA First round, Thursday, 7 p.m. La Puente 59, Pasadena AGBU 24 Santa Paula 56, San Gorgonio 43 Faith Baptist 53, Indio 52 Fillmore 52, Coast Union 22 Artesia 59, Nuview Bridge 36 Santa Monica Pacifica Christian 54, Newport Beach Pacifica Christian 34 San Bernardino 56, Samueli 35
Second round, Saturday, 7 p.m. La Puente at #1 San Jacinto Valley Academy Santa Paula at Webb Faith Baptist at CSDR Fillmore at #4 Rubidoux Santa Monica Pacifica Christian at #3 Artesia Academy of Careers & Exploration at Hesperia Christian Trinity Classical at Moreno Valley Riverside County Education Academy San Bernardino at #2 Wildwood
DIVISION 5A First round, Thursday Ganesha 84, Shandon 15 Da Vinci 59, Sequoyah 11 Century 41, San Gabriel Academy 37 La Reina 53, Yeshiva 40 Coastal Christian 36, Gladstone 31 Lucerne Valley 33, Packinghouse Christian 11 Vista del Lago 62, Dunn 12 Santa Clarita Christian 44, La Verne Lutheran 32 Santa Ana Calvary Chapel 57, Santa Maria Valley Christian 22 Connelly 40, Victor Valley Christian 24 University Prep 38, Cornerstone Christian 27 Magnolia 72, Mesrobian 15 Woodcrest Christian 46, Ramona Convent 25 Redlands Adventist 53, Hemet River Springs 34 Downey Calvary Chapel 39, Judson 27 Bishop Diego 51, Garden Street Academy 16
Second round, Saturday, 7 p.m. #1 Ganesha at Da Vinci Century at La Reina Coastal Christian at Lucerne Valley #4 Santa Clarita Christian at Vista del Lago Connelly at #3 Santa Ana Calvary Chapel Magnolia at University Prep Woodcrest Christian at Redlands Adventist #2 Bishop Diego at Downey Calvary Chapel
Notes: Quarterfinals, Wednesday, 7 p.m.; semifinals, Feb. 22, 7 p.m. Championships, Feb. 29 at Azusa Pacific U., Colony, and Godinez.
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Jon White’s Kentucky Derby Top 10
Time for the good stuff. As always, we’re lucky to have top expert Jon White take a look at what’s happening on the Kentucky Derby trail. Jon makes the morning line at Santa Anita, he’s a licensed steward, and he’s the pre-eminent historian on racing. We’re lucky to have him. So, here’s his Kentucky Derby rankings, brought courtesy of Xpressbet.com.
“One wonders if there is some equine trash talking going on these days between three undefeated 3-year-old colts at trainer Bob Baffert’s Santa Anita barn. These three colts–Nadal, Thousand Words and Authentic–are a combined seven for seven. They occupy three of the Top 10 spots on my Kentucky Derby rankings.
“Nadal, who is two for two, moves up to No. 2 on my Top 10 this week following his victory in last Sunday’s San Vicente Stakes. No. 3 Thousand Words, who is three for three, won the Los Alamitos Futurity last year and Robert B. Lewis Stakes this year. No. 6 Authentic, who is two for two, took last month’s Sham Stakes by nearly eight lengths.
“Did Nadal crush his San Vicente foes like Authentic did in the Sham? No, he won the San Vicente by just three-quarters of a length. Did Nadal come home fast? No, his 13.54 second clocking for the final furlong certainly left something to be desired.
“Nevertheless, Nadal showed a lot last Sunday. Bear in mind that Baffert had not planned to run Nadal in the San Vicente. Baffert called an audible to do so. The Hall of Fame horseman has become known for sometimes doing this type of thing when choosing where and when to run a horse, such as his recent last-moment decision to send Mucho Gusto to Florida for the Pegasus World Cup, a $3 million race that Mucho Gusto won.
“It’s to Nadal’s credit that he won the San Vicente even though Baffert said he had trained the big colt ‘light’ following his impressive maiden victory at first asking on Jan. 19.
“Apprentice J.C. Diaz Jr. rode Nadal in his maiden victory. That’s because Joel Rosario was unable to get back to Santa Anita from Saudi Arabia in time to ride the colt that day. In Nadal’s debut, he broke a tad slowly, rushed up early and went on to win the 6 1/2-furlong contest by nearly four lengths.
“Rosario did ride Nadal in the San Vicente. Baffert said he told Rosario, ‘Don’t get cute, just go. We can rate him some other day.’ Riding to instructions, Rosario gunned Nadal away from the gate. Nadal began in alert fashion this time. But it turned out that Nadal had to run very hard from the start to finish. He vied for the lead with Ginobili from the outset all the way to the finish. A sizzling pace of :21.81, :44.09, 1:09.05 certainly mitigated Nadal’s less-than-stellar final furlong in :13.54.
“Nadal won the San Vicente by three-quarters of a length in 1:22.59 as a 3-10 favorite. It was a fine final time on a slower-than-it-used-to-be Santa Anita main track.
“When Nadal was locked in a fierce battle for the lead with Ginobili at the top of the lane, Baffert admitted he thought Nadal was going to get beat. ‘He had to gut it out, so he’s got a good foundation now,’ Baffert said. ‘This should set him up pretty good. I think we’ll go to the Rebel.’
“The 1 1/16-mile Rebel Stakes will be run at Oaklawn Park on March 14. There were no Kentucky Derby points available in the San Vicente. The first four finishers in the Rebel will receive Kentucky Derby points on a 50-20-10-5 scale. Since the point system was introduced in 2013, it has taken an average of 26 points to make the field of 20 for the Kentucky Derby.
“While Nadal exhibited the kind of sheer zip to nearly run a half-mile in 43 and change and six furlongs in 1:08 and change, his pedigree suggests he might well be a very tough customer when going farther then seven furlongs. He figures to benefit from what likely would be a much softer pace in a longer race like the Rebel.
“Churchill Downs’ Kentucky Derby Future Wager Pool 2 closed last Sunday about a half-hour before Nadal won the San Vicente. The ‘all others’ option was the 2-1 favorite. Of the 23 individual horses, Nadal and Tiz Law had the lowest odds at 8-1 apiece. Nadal was the actual favorite among individual horses with $1,484 more bet on him than Tiz the Law.
“Tiz the Law holds onto the No. 1 spot on my Kentucky Derby rankings this week after vaulting to the top last week following his three-length victory in Gulfstream Park’s Holy Bull Stakes. The Constitution colt worked five furlongs in Florida on Monday in :50.00 at Palm Meadows. Tiz the Law is scheduled to make his next start for trainer Barclay Tagg in the Florida Derby at Gulfstream on March 28.
“Dennis’ Moment, well supported at 10-1 in the Kentucky Derby Future Wager, continues to gear up for his 2020 debut in Gulfstream’s 1 1/16-mile Fountain of Youth Stakes on Feb. 29. Daily Racing Form’s Jay Privman reported that Dennis’ Moment will have a new rider, Flavien Prat, for the Fountain of Youth. The mount became open due to Irad Ortiz Jr. being out of the country that day. Ortiz rides Mucho Gusto in the new $20 million Saudi Cup on Feb. 29. Ortiz has been aboard Dennis’ Moment in his last two races. The plan, according to trainer Dale Romans, is for Dennis’ Moment and Ortiz to be reunited after the Fountain of Youth.
“I have Dennis’ Moment ranked at No. 4. The Tiznow colt has not started since he stumbled badly at the start and finished eighth as the 9-10 favorite in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita last Nov. 1. Dennis’ Moment worked five furlongs in 1:00.22 last Saturday at Gulfstream.
“Ginobili finished a bang-up second in the San Vicente while making his first start since Oct. 6. Trained by Richard Baltas, the Munnings colt had won just once in four starts prior to the San Vicente. But it should be remembered that when Ginobili won a maiden race at Del Mar last summer by 2 1/2 lengths, the runner-up was the highly regarded Honor A.P.
“Honor A.P. currently is No. 5 on my Kentucky Derby Top 10. After he finished a fast-closing second to Ginobili in a six-furlong maiden race at Del Mar, Honor A.P. won a one-mile maiden affair in front-running fashion by 5 1/4 lengths at Santa Anita on Oct. 13, the last time he raced. Trainer John Sherriffs was quoted by Ed Golden in the Santa Anita stable notes as saying ‘we’ll try to make the San Felipe’ with Honor A.P., who worked five furlongs in 1:00.80 at Santa Anita last Saturday. Santa Anita’s 1 1/16-mile San Felipe on March 7 offers 50-20-10-5 points toward the $3 million Kentucky Derby on May 2.
“The only race last week offering Kentucky Derby points (10-4-2-1) was the 1 1/16-mile Sam F. Davis Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs won by Sole Volante for trainer Patrick Biancone. As far back as 15 lengths early, Sole Volante rallied to win going away by 2 1/2 lengths at odds of 5-1. The Karakontie colt now has won three of four career starts. His lone defeat came when he finished third behind Chance It and As Seen On Tv (cq) in the Mucho Macho Man Stakes at Gulfstream on Jan. 4.
“Biancone trained 1983 Horse of the Year All Along and 2004 Kentucky Derby runner-up Lion Heart. Smarty Jones won the 2004 Run for the Roses.
“Sole Volante debuts on my Top 10 this week at No. 7. One reason I decided to not rank him higher is no winner of the Sam F. Davis Stakes has ever gone on to win the Kentucky Derby.
“Exiting my Top 10 this week is Independence Hall, who finished second as the 7-10 favorite in the Davis. It was his first loss in four lifetime starts. Though Independence Hall was overtaken by Sole Volante during the stretch run of the Davis, at least there was an 11 1/2-length gap at the finish back to Ajaaweed in third. But this effort by Independence Hall does seem to raise a question as to whether or not he possesses the stamina to win going the Kentucky Derby distance of 1 1/4 miles.
“Storm the Court, the Eclipse Award-winning 2-year-old male of 2019, moves down to No. 9 after being No. 3 last week following his defeat in the San Vicente. Making his first start since winning the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile in a 45-1 upset last Nov. 1, Storm the Court finished fourth in the San Vicente for trainer Peter Eurton. But Storm the Court did not lose by a lot (2 1/2 lengths) and was returning after a layoff.
“With the San Vicente under Storm the Court’s belt, he certainly has a right to move forward in his next race. Eurton told Daily Racing Form’s Steve Andersen the San Felipe is a strong possibility for the Court Vision colt’s next start. Also on the table are the Louisiana Derby on March 21 and Sunland Derby on March 22.
“Saturday’s 1 1/8-mile Risen Star Stakes at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots will be run in two divisions after drawing 23 entries. Each division offers 50-20-10-5 Kentucky Derby points to the first four finishers.
“Enforceable heads a field of 11 in the first division. He is the 7-2 favorite on Mike Diliberto’s morning line. In the second division, which has a dozen entered, Anneau d’Or deserves top billing and is the 9-5 morning-line favorite.
“Mark Casse conditions Enforceable, who won Fair Grounds’ Lecomte Stakes in come-from-behind fashion on Jan. 18. Blaine Wright trains Anneau d’Or, narrowly beaten last year as the runner-up in both the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and Los Alamitos Futurity. Anneau d’Or is having blinkers added to his equipment for the Risen Star.
“Saturday’s 1 1/8-mile El Camino Real Derby at Golden Gate Fields, which has attracted a field of 11, will have 10-4-2-1 Kentucky Derby points up for grabs. The Baffert-trained Azul Coast is the 2-1 favorite on Steve Martinelli’s morning line.
“On Monday at Oaklawn, the 1 1/16-mile Southwest Stakes is another race offering 10-4-2-1 points toward a berth in the new 20-stall Kentucky Derby starting gate.
“Here are this week’s Kentucky Derby rankings, courtesy of Xpressbet:
1. Tiz the Law (1)
2. Nadal (5)
3. Thousand Words (2)
4. Dennis’ Moment (4)
5. Honor A.P. (6)
6. Authentic (7)
7. Sole Volante (NR)
8. Maxfield (8)
9. Storm the Court (3)
10. Anneau d’Or (10)
NOTE: Last week’s rankings in parentheses”
Santa Anita preview
Santa Anita is back to a four-day week with a Monday card on President’s Day. Friday’s card is eight races starting at 1 p.m. There are three allowance/optional claimers, four claiming races and one maiden special weight. There are three races on the turf,
The feature is the seventh, an allowance/optional claimer for older fillies and mares going 1 1/16 miles. The race only drew five entrants. The favorite, at 6-5, is First Star for trainer Ron Ellis and jockey Drayden Van Dyke. She’s pretty lightly raced with only four starts, two of which she won. Her last race was a fourth in the Grade 1 La Brea and she finished second in a Grade 2 at Keeneland the race before that.
Dr Lu is the second favorite at 7-5 for Baffert and Abel Cedillo. She is two-of-six lifetime and coming off a second in the Grade 3 La Canada. Back in 2018, she was fourth in the Grade 1 Chandelier Stakes.
Here are the field sizes, in order: 7, 6, 6, 8, 7, 9, 5, 9.
Ciaran Thornton’s SA pick of the day
RACE FIVE: No. 1 Lucky Ms Jones (8-1)
Lucky Ms Jones gets the first time Joel Rosario angle for trainer Phil D’Amato and what jumps off the page Friday is that best of 122, 47 second, four-furlong workout last week. The rail is winning 21% right now, Phil is 23% going from route to sprint and he is 28% beaten favorite. If we get this 8-1 morning line price jump all over it! This is also the “other D’Amato” as he saddles the favorite Miss Megan with Flavien Prat riding. The thing is Flavien is 0 for 9 for this trainer, so a beatable favorite and makes Lucky even more attractive. They also try dirt for the first time as well and second start off the layoff.
Sunday’s result: Fast Enough went off at 14-1 but was no match for Nadal and ran 3rd. The horse did finish ahead of the second choice Storm the Court.
Ciaran Thornton is the handicapper for Californiapick4.com, which offers daily full card picks, longshots of the day, best bets of the day.
Golden Gate weekend preview
Here’s our weekly look at the best racing going on at Golden Gate Fields. We’re delighted to have race caller and all-around good guy Matt Dinerman as our host for previews and other musings. Matt wasn’t with us last week because of a gas problem. No, not Matt, but Golden Gate. So, take it away, Matt.
“We’ve got four more racing days this week, Friday through Monday, with first post at 12:45 p.m. Of course, the headliner is Saturday’s $100,000 El Camino Real Derby. A field of 11 3-year-olds has been assembled. The race also offers 10 Kentucky Derby points to the winner and a free berth into the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico on May 16. In order for the latter incentive to be granted, the horse must be nominated to the 2020 Triple Crown series.
In 2019, trainer Bob Baffert saddled Grade 3 winner Kingly to a second-place finish. This year, Baffert is represented by Azul Coast, a son of Super Saver coming off a runner-up performance in the Grade 3 Sham Stakes at Santa Anita. Azul Coast is the 2-1 morning-line favorite.
Another Southern California-based entrant, Czechmight, broke his maiden at Keeneland in October and has joined the barn of Richard Baltas. A son of Street Sense, he makes his 3-year-old debut for the new barn in the El Camino Real Derby. The Stiff rounds out the trio of Southern California invaders. The Michael McCarthy trainee beat an allowance group over this track last month and should be OK with added distance. The second- through fifth-place finishers who ran behind The Stiff all enter back in this race as well.
My top pick, Indian Peak, suffered a traffic filled trip in his most recent start at Santa Anita. The local by Comic Strip blew the doors off the competition in his last start over this track, which resulted in an impressive allowance win for Quinn Howey. He looks like a promising colt to watch in the future. Although Azul Coast has proven class, I feel Indian Peak can compete with him over a surface he clearly enjoys racing over. Just take a look at his replay from Dec. 27. I think you’ll be impressed.
“The El Camino Real Derby will go as the seventh race on a nine-race card with a post listed as 3:52 p.m. We are delighted to have Zoe Cadman from XBTV, who will join the simulcast feed throughout the card, and Joaquin Jaime, set to provide on-track coverage of the day’s racing action for TVG. The El Camino Real Derby will also be shown on Fox Sport 2’s “America’s Day At The Races” program.”
Los Alamitos weekend preview
It’s time to turn things over to marketing and meda guru Orlando Gutierrez, who will tell us about things going on at Los Alamitos. Orlando, the floor is yours.
“Jus Cuz, a two-time futurity winner at Turf Paradise in 2018, is back at Los Alamitos Race Course for the first time since her 2-year-old season and will head a solid field in the 300-yard eighth race on Friday night. First post is 6 p.m.
“Jus Cuz finished second in a pair of local maiden races before traveling to Turf Paradise to win the Arizona QH Racing Assn. Futurity and the AQHRA Southwest Futurity. She remained in Arizona last year but is now back at the Orange County oval. Friday’s eight-race card will also include a $12,000 allowance at 870 yards led by recent local winner Hoss Cartwright from the barn of trainer Jack Carava. Both races are part of the Pick 6 sequence, which features an $8,576 carryover. The Pick 6 will start in the third race and should have a total pool of around $27,000.
“Saturday’s eight-race program will also get started at 6 p.m. and will feature multiple graded derby finalist Jess Flashee taking on local stakes winner CM Boom Shakalaka and three-time stakes runner-up Arizona Favorite in a $12,400 allowance for older horses. Trained by Felix Gonzalez, Jess Flashee qualified to the Grade 2 Golden State Derby, Grade 2 Southern California Derby, and finished third in the Jamie Jay Handicap last year.
“The richest race of the weekend is Sunday evening with the $109,500 Los Alamitos Maiden Stakes. Sass Mo Blue, second in a trial to the 2019 Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity, is the one to beat after winning his Maiden Stakes trial by 1 ¼ lengths in the fastest qualifying time of 17.617 seconds on Jan. 26.
“Sass Mo Blue has been a solid performer his entire career and had finished fourth or better in each of his four starts. His runner-up effort in his Two Million trial came against multiple futurity finalist Cattail Cove, who would go on to run second in the Two Million final. Sass Mo Blue also finished third to Royally Significant in a trial to the Golden State Million Futurity last year. Jesus Rios Ayala, leading quarter-horse rider each of the past three years, will ride Sass Mo Blue for trainer Mike Casselman.
“Vegas Corona is another talented runner to watch after winning his trial in the second fastest qualifying time. Prior to his trial win, the colt by Corona Cartel finished third in his local debut and before that he faced Grade 1 futurity finalist Kiss Thru Fire and Grade 2 Dash For Cash Futurity winner Chilitos in a 440-yard trial to the All American Futurity at Ruidoso Downs.”
“Last weekend, longshots dominated the Los Alamitos Winter Series. Tell Cartel, at 17-1, pulled away late to win the Grade 1 $190,500 Los Alamitos Winter Derby on Saturday night. The colt by Favorite Cartel gave owner and breeder Martha Wells her first ever Grade 1 stakes victory.
“Wells has campaigned quarter horses since the late 1990s and before that she spent three years as a Quarter Horse trainer after the passing of her husband, trainer Dwayne Wells. “Mimi”, as she’s affectionally known was presented with the Frank Vessels, Sr. Memorial Award in appreciation for her contributions to the sport and has won the Pacific Coast Quarter Horse Racing Assn. Breeder Special Achievement Award in 2019 and 2012.
“Bos Time Machine was the surprising winner of the Grade 1 $159,000 Brad McKinzie Los Alamitos Winter Championship on Sunday night. Sent off at 12-1 odds, Bos Time Machine led the entire way to help extend trainer Paul Jones’ record of six Winter Championship victories. Ridden by Carlos Huerta, Bos Time Machine’s win also earned the first provisional starting berth of the year to the Grade 1 $600,000 Champion of Champions on Dec. 12.”
Chris Wade’s LA pick of the day
RACE SEVEN: No. 7 Wrong Impression (5-1)
He is from the barn of highly successful trainer Paul Jones. This trouble-prone runner deluxe enters this event sporting many competitive numbers with trouble and track variant factored in and the long strider prepped strongly for this race with an 18.10 second gate drill 13 days ago. Throw out this runner’s previous out when he broke slow and was in tight quarters, and in my opinion all he needs is a decent journey to be a major player tonight.
Now, the star of the show, Friday’s entries.
Santa Anita Entries for Friday, February 14.
Santa Anita, Santa Anita Park, Arcadia, California. 24th day of a 60-day meet.
FIRST RACE.
6½ Furlongs. Purse: $23,000. Maiden Claiming. Fillies. 3 year olds. Claiming Price $30,000.
PP
Horse
Jockey
Wt
Trainer
M-L
Claim $
1
Sassy and Hot
Thomas Trullier
122
Leonard Powell
10-1
30,000
2
Via Alpina
Edwin Maldonado
122
Craig Dollase
7-2
30,000
3
Violent Speed
Rafael Bejarano
122
Doug F. O’Neill
3-1
30,000
4
Golden Melodie
Jorge Velez
117
Craig Anthony Lewis
5-1
30,000
5
Zippninthecity
J.C. Diaz, Jr.
122
Vladimir Cerin
4-1
30,000
6
It’s a Riddle
Abel Cedillo
122
Robert B. Hess, Jr.
9-5
30,000
7
Muchomoneybaby
Efrain Hernandez
122
Ricardo Zamora
50-1
30,000
SECOND RACE.
6½ Furlongs. Purse: $18,000. Claiming. 4 year olds and up. Claiming Price $12,500.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti’s dream of a 2020 presidential run may be over, but he’s still comparing himself to the field of Democratic candidates.
Garcetti, 49, quipped that he’s an “older, straighter Pete” Buttigieg during a speech Thursday, likening himself to the former South Bend, Ind., mayor because they both served in the Navy Reserve. Both politicians also are Rhodes scholars and play the piano.
It wasn’t the first time Garcetti has linked himself to Buttigieg, 38, now a top-tier presidential candidate who came in second in this week’s New Hampshire primary.
“It’s nice to have Pete be like my mayoral avatar, to show that the theory was correct and that there is, I think, a hunger for a new, outside-Washington mayoral leadership,” Garcetti told the Atlantic earlier this year.
If elected, Buttigieg would be the youngest president in U.S. history, the first openly gay chief executive and the first candidate ever to go directly from City Hall to the White House. He has joked that he is “definitely the only left-handed, Maltese American Episcopalian gay millennial war veteran in the race.”
He stood alongside Garcetti in 2017 in South Bend at the launch of Accelerator for America, a nonprofit founded by the L.A. mayor to spur transportation and “opportunity zones,” areas where developers and other businesses receive tax breaks in return for investments. Buttigieg served as an advisor to the nonprofit.
Garcetti’s longtime political consultant, Rick Jacobs, attended Buttigieg’s 2018 wedding.
Despite his friendship with Buttigieg, Garcetti is backing former Vice President Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination.
The L.A. mayor spent two years weighing whether to make a bid for the White House, but announced last year he would stay out of the race.
“What we have right here in Los Angeles sets the pace for the nation,” he said at the time, drawing a contrast with the partisan fighting that blocks action in Washington.
The Orange County Board of Supervisors this week took a step toward processing the county’s substantial backlog of rape kits when it approved a $612,000 contract with a third-party forensics tester.
Virginia-based Bode Technology will test 1,500 of the county’s 1,700 untested rape kits. The O.C. Crime Lab will test the remaining kits.
“It’s a horrible thing that happened to these women. There needs to be action taken so we can get justice,” said Kimberly Edds, a spokeswoman for the Orange County district attorney.
The $612,000 going toward Bode is left over from a previous grant. Edds said the D.A. will seek further grant funding for the testing, which is estimated to cost about $1.2 million.
The county’s rape kit backlog has been accumulating for decades, a problem plaguing the entire state. No reliable estimate exists for the number of backlogged rape kits in California.
Last year, the state passed a law requiring rape kits to be processed within 120 days after they’re received. Edds said the oldest untested kit in Orange County dates to 1977.
When asked why some rape kits have gone untested for more than four decades, Edds pointed to lack of funding.
“It’s a resource problem where there’s only so much that can be done,” she said. “If you have this kit from 1977, you have other higher priority kits that keep pushing that down in the list. It’s not an excuse, but that’s why this is such a priority to get this taken care of, because every case is important and every victim is important.”
Edds said another issue with getting rape kits tested is that police departments don’t promptly send the kits to the O.C. Crime Lab, which performs the testing in the county.
The new state law requires the kits to be submitted within 20 days after they are received by law enforcement.
The rectification of the rape kit backlog is a joint effort by Orange County Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer and Supervisor Don Wagner.
“Clearing the backlog of sexual assault kits has been a priority of mine since I was a county supervisor, and I have doubled down on that commitment,” Spitzer said recently. “The district attorney’s office is fully invested in getting these untested kits tested to provide these victims justice and a safer Orange County. I am pleased Supervisor Wagner requested the additional funds needed to close the backlog gap.”
A former Cal State San Marcos dean submitted dozens of fraudulent hospitality claims, filed duplicate expense reports and made up dinner guests to collect improper reimbursements, a long-awaited investigation released Thursday concludes.
On one day he attended an NFL game and watched a Guns N’ Roses concert, calling it college business, the report said.
In total, Michael Schroder racked up at least $41,000 worth of unallowable expenses between July 2017 and June 2019, investigators at the California State University chancellor’s office said.
His dismissal by the university was announced late Wednesday.
“We investigated allegations that the dean of extended learning at California State University, San Marcos inappropriately used his expense account for personal meals and events, claimed business expenses for meals with individuals with whom he never met and spent excessively on international travel,” the report states. “We substantiated all of the allegations.”
The 28-page investigative findings lay out a sweeping breach of Schroder’s fiduciary duty to safeguard and steward public funding. But the Cal State report also limited its review to the former dean, who was not alone in spending university money on lavish meals, personal drivers and five-star resorts.
The San Diego Union-Tribune reported last year that former university President Karen Haynes and several other senior administrators also stayed at overseas hotels costing as much as $760 per night, hired chauffeur-driven limousines and used school resources for expensive dinners and fine wines.
The chancellor’s office declined to answer questions Thursday about why spending by other Cal State San Marcos administrators was excluded from its eight-month investigation — or whether Chancellor Timothy White would seek to recover any of the allegedly misspent funds.
Cal State San Marcos spokeswoman Margaret Chantung said in a statement that the campus’ own investigation had included a review of one year’s worth of spending by Haynes and other administrators.
“The scope of the [Cal State San Marcos] internal review included all reimbursements from vice presidents and presidents during the 2018-19 fiscal year,” she wrote. “While we discovered instances of travel spending that fell outside CSU policy, we did not find any evidence of fraud.”
She also said school officials have not decided whether to try to recoup any funds from Schroder — or others — or whether the university would refer the case to criminal prosecutors.
“We will be reviewing all of our options,” she said.
Schroder has not responded to multiple requests for interviews about his travel expenses.
Eduardo Negron, a political science major who organized a protest on campus last fall after Schroder’s spending was first disclosed, was less than satisfied with the audit results released Thursday.
“It took the university eight months to know what we have all known since the beginning: that former Dean Schroder stole tens of thousands of tax dollars to satisfy lavish whims,” Negron said. “The investigation still fails to fully scrutinize the misuse of funds by former Provost [Graham] Oberem, former President Haynes and dozens of other administrators.”
Oberem, the administrator who approved many of Schroder’s expense reports, retired from his position June 30, just ahead of the chancellor’s investigation. He is still on the university payroll as a faculty member.
Adam Day, executive of the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation and chairman of the Cal State Board of Trustees, said he is grateful to the whistleblower who alerted university officials to the spending.
“I am outraged to see the findings in the audit,” he said in an email. “This type of fraud and abuse of the public trust and tax dollars is inexcusable.”
Day commended Cal State San Marcos President Ellen Neufeldt for her handling of the case and said he asked that the report be sent to every university president to share with their staff to make sure such improper spending does not happen on other campuses.
Neufeldt requested the investigation after receiving an anonymous complaint days after she took over for the retired Haynes on July 1. In a statement Thursday, she promised to shift the culture that tolerated the abuse.
“Actions speak louder than words, so we are going to show you through our deeds that we want to earn the trust of our students, our families, our faculty and staff, and our community,” she said. “We have taken appropriate personnel actions and outlined below are the steps we have taken to improve our fiscal stewardship moving forward.”
In addition to the dismissal of Schroder and his wife, Beth, who had been the campus’ senior director of philanthropy, Neufeldt said Wednesday that Dean of Graduate Studies Wesley Schultz is now on administrative leave and interim Provost Kamel Haddad has resigned his position but plans to exercise his right to return to the faculty.
The announcement came eight months after the whistleblower complaint was sent to Cal State San Marcos and to the San Diego Union-Tribune in June.
After the initial Union-Tribune report disclosing Schroder’s spending — based on public records that were not released until September — the university announced some changes to the school’s travel policy and its accounting practices.
Among other actions, Cal State San Marcos said it tightened its oversight of travel spending and created an internal auditor position it expects to fill this spring.
According to the chief audit officer at the chancellor’s office, Schroder sought and received reimbursements for personal spending, including a 2019 trip to Vietnam, where he met with his wife and kids and rented a suite for almost $300 a night — well over the $151 limit.
During the same trip — one of dozens he took in the two-year period that auditors examined — Schroder claimed reimbursement for more than $3,600 for a group tour he said he paid for in cash.
“When we examined the tour company’s website, based on the size of the group, we estimated that the cost of the tour in question would be approximately $1,000, significantly less than the $3,678 claimed by the dean,” the audit said.
Schroder also fabricated the names of guests to dinners that were apparently personal meals with his family, auditors found.
In February 2019, Schroder claimed $403 for a meal at Fleming’s steakhouse, which included an $80 bottle of wine, $26 for two dark chocolate truffle martinis, $68 for a steak with jumbo crab and $38 for two “child filets,” the auditors found.
“The dean wrote on the claim that this was for a dinner meeting with three other individuals ‘to discuss program options for study abroad and short-term programs overseas for CSU students and short-term programs in USA/LA for international students,’” the report said. “This was a fabrication.”
Schroder told auditors he did not remember who was at the meal, but if he claimed it as an expense it was either legitimate or a personal meal that was submitted for reimbursement by mistake, the report said. His wife told auditors she was not at the dinner and could not remember whether the couple’s two children were there.
Auditors were not convinced, pointing to an email from Schroder to his wife saying he had made reservations at Fleming’s and gave her other options such as “date night” and bringing the children, according to the report.
It was not the only personal meal Schroder told auditors he claimed as hospitality or business dinners by mistake.
On one such occasion, an employee whom Schroder reported as the sole guest at a business dinner told auditors he was not there. Auditors found an email in which Schroder told his wife the employee had canceled their dinner plans, so the two of them should have dinner instead, and she responded “okay.”
Schroder also claimed to travel to universities on Cal State San Marcos business even though his emails described plans to attend a National Football League game and see a Guns N’ Roses concert on the same day. Auditors said he stayed at a $359-per-night hotel.
“Based on this information, it is unlikely that the dean conducted any business meetings during his short stay, bringing into question what benefit the campus derived from his trip,” the report said.
In another case, Schroder’s emails showed that he billed the university for travel to a conference even though he was on a cross-country road trip in a minivan he rented, the report said.
“He claimed reimbursement for meals in the locations listed on his travel expense claim,” investigators said. “However, based on the locations listed on his receipts, the dean drove the rental car from Virginia to California, with several stops along the way.”
As a dean, Schroder was paid $185,349 in salary in 2018, according to the public pay database on Transparent California’s website.
The chancellor’s office audit concluded with six specific recommendations for its leaders, including developing a policy against prepaying most travel costs, clarifying the expense approval process, retraining staff about the expense process and reminding employees that certain reimbursements are not permitted.
Investigators also suggested taking disciplinary or corrective action against the dean and those who approved his expenses — a recommendation that appears to have been followed already.
Cal State San Marcos pledged to act on all of the recommendations by June 30.
The north San Diego County campus is one of the newest in the 23-school California State University system. It serves a diverse population, with 45% of the 17,000-member student body identifying as Latino or Latina.
Fifty-three percent of graduates were the first in their family to earn a bachelor’s degree, according to the campus website.
San Diego Union-Tribune staff writer Gary Robbins contributed to this report.
A 37-year-old man has been charged with murder after authorities said he beat a 73-year-old patient he shared a hospital room with so severely that the older man later died from his injuries.
Reginald Daniel Panthier was charged Thursday with one felony count each of murder, elder abuse resulting in death, elder abuse with infliction of injury and assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.
He has pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors say Panthier, a Long Beach-area transient, assaulted Francisco Sanchez-Reyes of Long Beach at College Medical Center on Jan. 31. Sanchez-Reyes suffered major injuries to his upper torso and died nine days later, Long Beach police said.
Panthier was arrested the day of the attack. He remains in custody with bail set at $1.075 million, jail records show.
If convicted, he faces a maximum of 50 years to life in prison, prosecutors said.
Earlier this week, College Medical Center characterized the attack as “a tragic and unforeseeable incident” and said the hospital “is fully cooperating with law enforcement in regards to the criminal investigation and prosecution of the assailant for this random act of violence.”
“The safety and well-being of our patients, along [with] the provision of superior care, remain our highest priority,” the hospital said in a statement Tuesday. “College Medical Center’s deepest sympathies are with the family and friends of the deceased.”
[Warning: This story freely discusses the plot of “Sonic the Hedgehog.” Readers wishing to avoid spoilers should go see the film before proceeding below.]
In “Sonic the Hedgehog,” the live-action adaptation of the beloved Sega video game series, the lightning-fast titular character goes on a road trip to collect some gold rings and finally has a chance to make real friends. Of course, he encounters a zany villain who makes things a little difficult.
Those who have seen the film, which hit theaters Friday, know the answer to one very important question that plagues many a moviegoer: Does this movie have a post-credits scene?
The answer: “Sonic the Hedgehog” has one pre-credits tag that’s shown after the main story from the film is wrapped, and one mid-credits scene shown right before the traditional end credits start to roll. And yes, both scenes tease the possibility of a sequel.
Featuring Ben Schwartz as the voice of Sonic, “Sonic the Hedgehog” eschews most elements from the original video game in favor of a story about friendship, community and home. But there are plenty of Easter eggs that wink to fans of the games along the way (such as what appears to be an echidna tribe in the film’s opening moments, or how Sonic has found refuge in Green Hills, Mont.).
Both bonus scenes feature more direct nods to Sonic’s video game origins.
The first additional scene is a sort of pre-credits tag that comes immediately after the title card at the end of the film that shows Dr. Robotnik’s fate after Sonic sent him to a mushroom planet.
Played by Jim Carrey, the diabolical Dr. Robotnik’s appearance was not as video game-accurate as Sonic’s during a majority of the movie. But a trip through a warp ring gave the mad scientist the makeover he deserved. Now bald with a wild bushy mustache, Robotnik seems confident that he will find his way off the mushroom planet and back to Earth.
Also known as Dr. Eggman (per his original Japanese name, which has since merged with his official English moniker), Robotnik has long been Sonic’s main nemesis and is remembered for his more egg-shaped silhouette even though his design has been revamped since his 16-bit debut.
Being trapped on a mushroom planet could be seen as a dig at Nintendo’s Mario franchise and its Mushroom Kingdom ruled by Princess Peach, but Sonic games have featured mushroom-themed levels as well. Either way it seems Sonic may not have seen the last of Dr. Eggman.
The second bonus scene comes after the animated, video game-inspired credits and introduces a fan favorite character from the “Sonic” franchise.
Some wind picks up in a forest outside of town before a warp ring appears and Tails makes his way to Earth. After taking a look at some sort of tracking device, he flies off into the distance, saying, “I hope I’m not too late.”
First appearing in the 1992 sequel game “Sonic the Hedgehog 2,” Tails, aka Miles Prower, has long been Sonic’s best friend and faithful ally. He is a two-tailed fox that is able to fly by rotating them like helicopter blades. Tails is also generally known to be a skilled pilot and mechanical genius.
What Tails is hoping he is “not too late” for, however, remains a mystery that only a sequel can solve.
I’m no statistician but my guess is that for as many people who are thinking of their partner on this Valentine’s Day, there are just as many ruminating over an ex. Or perhaps even a compendium of exes. Or maybe they are simply trying to fight back any thoughts of any exes and past Valentine’s Days.
A new game, released today for PCs and Macs, argues that we instead should embrace the ghosts of former lovers.
After all, as “Apartment: A Separated Place” makes clear, they haunt us anyway. Here, in a work of interactive fiction developed by Robyn Tong Gray and Richard Emms, our places of residence become at varying times a prison or a museum, either a collection of a past life we wish we could forget or walls that increasingly feel claustrophobic. Both are fuel for depression for our protagonist, who spends his days trying to avoid the thoughts triggered by a coffee cup, an old Post-it note or even a misplaced television remote.
These objects are reminders of fights or better days or simply signs of growth. Those old coffee cups? They once held wine after an early date, before he had the means to purchase beverage-specific glassware. Consider “Apartment: A Separated Place,” the length of a film, a sort of game companion piece to the Netflix film “Marriage Story,” and the sort of independently developed game that continues to stretch the very definition of a game.
The desire to explore softer, less competitive emotions in games is still a nascent space. If the reaction of those who witnessed me playing “Apartment: A Separated Place” in the Los Angeles Times office is any small indication of the population at large, many are still confounded by the idea of games without a win state. But as anyone who’s survived a relationship can attest, exploring vulnerability takes plenty of heroics as well.
“Apartment: A Separated Place” gives us a light narrative — we piece together the lives and the relationships of not only the newly single protagonist but the heartbreaks suffered by others in the housing complex — but mostly it uses interactivity as a means to engage. While it starts relatively dour, as our totally average dude is in the throes of depression, it soon takes on more surreal metaphorical qualities.
The actual breakup at the heart of the game isn’t one of great dramatics. It’s a story of two people who deeply love each other but simply drifted apart. Likewise, too, many of the instances we encounter via the homes of our neighbors. If presented as a film or a television show, “Apartment: A Separated Place” would be relatively low on theatrics, perhaps even tedious, but such an approach particularly suits interactive fiction — the game gives us a space to wander and get lost in.
The more relatable the moments, the easier it is to pause and linger over a hair clip, and wonder what emotions will be conjured, in the form or a graphic-novel like panels, if we click on the item. And the more normal the relationship, the better it is for developers to conjure magic-like moments that allow us to reflect on the everyday rather than see it exaggerated.
Ultimately, this is a game about moving on, and we do so by confronting the memories — good and bad — of the characters in the apartment. A game allows us to explore narratives not just from differing points of view, but provides the open space for us to try to match the emotional headspace of its characters, sometimes a young girl who dreams of being a princess, and sometimes from the parents whose overtime shifts kept them from learning when exactly her favorite color shifted from pink to blue.
Playfulness comes from discovering these memories, wandering in a forest, for instance, and using lightning bugs to highlight objects that recall the past. In another scene, we direct a character around crowded city streets, only in this scene we’re walking in someone else’s dream. The thoughts we choose dictate the narrative we follow, and those thoughts are coming from a partner who is wondering what is driving their lover away: Is it another suitor? Or are they truly consumed with work? We’re picking the direction in which a mind will spiral.
We don’t always get a clear answer as to how a relationship ended, but in games we don’t need one. And besides, romance — its excitement, its whims, its panic attacks or the fear it causes — doesn’t itself follow a linear script. For those who still think of games in terms of winning or losing, we win here by confronting what may be difficult for its characters.
“Apartment: A Separated Place” isn’t itself a painful experience, in the emotional sense, that is. Whether climbing the endless stairs of a twisted mansion — the mind here of a lonely elderly woman — or tapping the keyboard to reveal the words typed by a frustrated novelist, “Apartment: A Separated Place” gradually aims to settle the player into something of a dream state.
By doing so, it eases the nightmare of heartbreak, at least for a moment.
Developer: The Elsewhere Company
Platforms: PC, Mac
Price: $14.00
Info: apartment.ga.me
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“The Lucky Star” is a seedy, overlong and glorious ode to community
Everything about William T. Vollmann is writ large. Over the course of an intensely prolific career, he has written lots of genuine literary doorstoppers — enough , in fact, to hold open (or closed) all the doors in any moderately sized home in his native state of California. In other words, if you want to pay Vollmann’s work the attention it deserves, you’re going to need a lot of bookshelves and a lot of spare time.
Both Vollmann’s fiction and nonfiction range across vast territories. Having written more than two dozen (mostly very long) books, he is five large volumes into a seven-novel series about the colonization of North America, and his journalism includes “Imperial” (2009), a 1,300-plus-page examination of the water-challenged, immigrant-energized Imperial Valley.
His thematic and technical range may be as wide as his interests, swinging from the fabulist to the naturalistic and back again. His first novel (and my least favorite),“You Bright and Risen Angels,” is the Pynchon-esque secret history of a war between insects and electricity; his most successful, the 2005 National Book Award winner “Europe Central,” explores the cultural clash of Germany and Russia during WWII and the life and music of Shostakovich.
A typical Vollmann book (if there is one) is packed with quotations and footnoted sources, punctuated by long riffs of dreaming and mythologizing. Yet in everything he writes, he is concerned with the ways people strive to be better than the world that contains them. For all their sometimes wearying breadth and depth, his books almost always focus on small, inconsequential lives — the sort of lives that most of us live.
Vollmann’s latest novel, “The Lucky Star,” is set among the unglamorous bars and motel rooms of San Francisco’s Tenderloin — a neighborhood the author has explored before — and while it possesses the scope of his past novels (including 25 dense pages of “Notes on Sources”), it also feels driven by an urgent contempt toward current politics. Hisnarrator often refers to an “uncouth nationalist” who recently won an election, but Vollmann’s aim is broader — to build a sense of fictional community that welcomes anybody who seeks love and fellowship with others.
“The Lucky Star’s” cast of characters resembles an LGBTQ version of Eugene O’Neill’s “The Iceman Cometh,” or John Steinbeck’s “Tortilla Flat.” First and foremost there is a mysterious woman often referred to simply as “the lesbian” (though she prefers the self-created name of Neva), who has been taught mystic skills by sadistic old women on a mysterious island and now possesses the power to enchant and seduce everybody she meets. “I love everyone,” she often claims — and unlike many of the other characters (most of whom love to love and be loved by Neva) she doesn’t take money for sex; she seems driven only by a desire to please.
Then there’s Frank, sometimes referred to as the “transwoman,” who changes her name to Judy in honor of Judy Garland. (Many chapters are adorned with Judy quotes, including one that provides the book’s title: “I’ve always said that I was born under a Lucky Star, somewhere Over the Rainbow.”) Judy wants to reshape herself on the outside until she matches the person she imagines herself to be on the inside. (She especially admires Garland’s “brilliant dishonesty.”) And while many characters reduce each other to stereotypes — “straight man,” “the Mexicana,” “the other woman,” the “dominatrix” — Judy wants to find her true, unstereotypical self through love. As the narrator (a lonely man who also succumbs to Neva’s charms) remarks, “as long as we felt loved, what mattered why or how?”
Like many Vollmann novels, “The Lucky Star” is too long. But at the same time, it develops a powerful sense of human life and its elemental pleasures set amid countless scenes of sucking, licking, penetrating and more. At times, this tawdry tableau rises like a bright balloon out of the sticky world into a better, more ethereal place. For instance, the narrator describes a session with Neva that transports him “into the rosy hazy caverns of dream”:
“It seems to me now that when I was playing with her soft breasts, stroking and squeezing them as carefully as a trained retriever dog fits his mouth around the fresh-killed game bird to bring it intact to the hunter, the pleasure most definitely did not originate in my fingers themselves, although I certainly felt it there; rather, it came out of her, passing into me like a tingling warmth; my hands merely completed the circuit; I could almost see it rising up out of my darling, the loving light of life itself.”
“The Lucky Star” is filled with this sort of prose. At times it provides a sense that love is both miraculous and mundane; at others, it feels like the longest possible candidate for a Bad Sex in Fiction Award. Ultimately, though, it adds up to a hypnotic, sad and angry novel about people striving to be more than they’re allowed to be — a “seance” of rough living and simple community that rejects no one.
Vollmann’s books embrace everything and everybody, and it is hard to read him without feeling both energized and exhausted. It’s also hard not to wonder what kind of person could produce such things in such volume. In which case it’s worth exploring “Conversations with William T. Vollmann,” edited by Daniel Lukes and published last month, which gathers several decades of interviews and profiles in an effort to contain Vollmann’s multitudes.
He claims to have fought for the mujahedin in Afghanistan; he equates “religious faith and sexual fetishization”; he has been rumored to keep wives “all over the world”; he enjoys dressing up in his female identity of Dolores. The FBI once suspected him of being the Unabomber and made him the subject of a massive tome of its own — 785 pages — before crossing him off the list. It’s hard to imagine that the reductive minds of the FBI could have produced anything as interesting or compassionate as a too-long novel by Vollmann.
Bradfield is the author of “The History of Luminous Motion” and “Dazzle Resplendent: Adventures of a Misanthropic Dog.”
Kamasi Washington, “Live at the Apollo” (Amazon Prime)
Last year when the saxophonist Washington brought his overpowering band to the Apollo Theater in Harlem for the first time, a crew was there to document it. The resulting 90-minute film, which came out last week on Amazon Prime, captures the energy that has made the Los Angeles tenor player one of the key jazz bandleaders and players of the last decade.
Five years after Washington unveiled his career-defining debut, “The Epic,” at the Regent in downtown Los Angeles, we see the artist on the other coast, walking the Apollo’s stage during sound check and pausing to stare at the empty auditorium.
A student at UCLA’s famed school of ethnomusicology, Washington appreciates the Apollo’s place in black music history. Those who have played at the Apollo since it became a performance venue in 1934 include Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Sister Rosetta Tharp, Thelonius Monk, James Brown, Miles Davis, Otis Redding, the Soul Stirrers, Aretha Franklin — and pretty much every important black artist since.
“To be invited to come and play at the Apollo is to be asked to share your music on one of the greatest stages that there is,” Washington says near the film’s opening. “It’s to join a lineage of musicians that have shaped the world and what it is.”
The conversation is one of many non-performance scenes that takes the camera away from the band’s searing music and into Washington’s experience during the event. Brief scenes find the artist backstage just prior to greeting the crowd or buying a dashiki before the set at the Malcolm Shabazz Harlem Market. Another scene follows Washington as he explores the National Jazz Museum. When Washington comes upon Ellington’s piano, he’s invited to play it. Taking a seat, Washington gently works through a few chords and melodies, and as he does you can almost feel a spiritual gust move through the room.
Each cutaway scene informs the music. We meet some of the band’s dozen-plus players, many of whom have grown up alongside Washington in the city’s jazz scene. While introducing Cameron Graves during the performance of “Street Fighter Mas” (at 2:35 in the above YouTube clip), Washington tells the crowd about practicing all day in order to keep up with the pianist. Graves then moves through a sublimely compact, densely packed solo that illustrates his mastery.
Elsewhere, trombone player and longtime Washington collaborator Ryan Porter pushes through nuanced solos that weave through percussive measures — courtesy of two drummers and two other percussionists — before easing back into the fabric. The vocalists Dwight Trible and Patrice Quinn offer harmonic, oft-wordless arrangements. Keyboardist Brandon Coleman’s synth playing across the set commands the camera. During “Re Run,” he makes it scream like Eddie Van Halen’s guitar. During the intro to “Show Us the Way,” his synth stabs through the cacophony with ray-gun pew-pew shooting sounds.
Introducing “Truth” as a celebration of diversity, Washington tells the crowd that they’ll hear five different melodies at once “as a metaphor for just how much love we can create when we all come together.” The interplay that follows is a lesson in how complex ideas can become fluid musical expressions.
Best, the visually stunning cinematography is equaled by the sound production. Precisely recorded and mixed, the concert rewards not only screen-centered viewing, but audio-only listening.
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