GM’s Euro Electric Car Plans

With some help from the British taxpayers, General Motors is bullish about the U.K. maarket for its E-Flex vehicles that cana be engineered for electric propulsion or petrol. How many electric cars does GM think it can sell in Europe where petrol is hovering around $10 per U.S. gallon? According to GM’s product boss Bob Lutz, the automaker believes it could move as many as 30,000 units in the first year of availability, with the worldwide figure of one million by 2020.


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Cash update and other notes from Olympic training camp

Storm forward Swin Cash will be part of the Olympics, although not as a player, as she had hoped. She’ll join five-time Olympian Teresa Edwards in the NBC studio in New York to broadcast non-Team USA basketball games.

“It’s kind of like watching at home in your living room, only I have to remember I’m not at home watching in my living room,” Edwards joked.

Cash’s duties means her lower back injury will get more rest, but she won’t be part of the Storm’s practices during the WNBA hiatus. The women’s basketball portion runs Aug. 9-23. Seattle resumes WNBA play Aug. 28 at KeyArena against Houston.

But the opportunity is one Cash, 28, couldn’t pass up. She was part of ESPN’s in-studio NBA coverage and names ABC News anchor Robin Roberts, today’s recipient of the 2008 Inspiring Woman award, as a role model.

“It was awesome for me to be in college and have her in our backyard at ESPN,” said Cash of attending Connecticut while Roberts was an anchor on SportsCenter, among other programs with the network. “I was like a little kid in the candy store, always asking her questions and being a sponge. She would hold her own with all these guys and I would be like, ‘Wow!’ When she made the transition to , I knew anything was possible. She’s been the biggest influence.”

WINE AND WRISTS: Went to the WNBA’s wine-tasting event at Cellar 360 in San Francisco on Tuesday evening and New York forward Ashley Battle easily won as best pitchwoman for the Beringer wines. Battle, who played two games for the Storm in 2005 before being cut by former coach Anne Donovan, played in Spain, where she told me they drink wine for breakfast. “Yes, breakfast. Or beer,” she said. Her self-proclaimed love of wine helped her dive into the intricacies of the Chardonnay where the grapes are grown in Napa Valley. Even had me do the “Scope” taste, where you swish around the wine in your mouth to collect all the flavors.

Storm forward Shyra Ely was also in attendance, but isn’t into wine, so she didn’t do much talking about the product. I did learn that she’ll “never be killed by a bear because I’ll never be outside that long.” I was trying to talk her into camping in Washington’s gorgeous outdoors. “It’ll never happen,” she said.

Other players helping to pitch the wine to invited guests were Washington center Taj McWilliams-Franklin, Connecticut guard Lindsay Whalen, Houston center Michelle Snow, Sacramento coach Jenny Boucek and Sacramento forward Nicole Powell.

Powell was an expert. She swiveled her wrist around (without spilling the wine) to break up the aroma and when I commented about her smooth technique, she quickly quipped, “I’m a shooter, it’s all in the wrists.”

The two-hour event wrapped a long day for the players and staff. It started with a basketball clinic with about 70 kids in the morning, the opening of a Boys & Girls club in the afternoon, and the wine in the evening. “I’m wiped out,” Ely said before boarding the charter limo bus back to the hotel. She’ll be at the luncheon today and then head to Indianapolis on Thursday, returning for Storm practice on Aug. 9.

GOLDEN SHOES: Houston forward Tina Thompson went digging in her garage for shoes and came up with a gold pair of CB34s, Charles Barkley’s collector Nikes. She’s been wearing them to the Olympic training camp, appropriate because America is trying to bring home its fourth consecutive gold medal in women’s basketball. You can read more about Thompson’s thoughts heading into the Games here.

SANTOS DEPARTS: Storm forward Kelly Santos’ plans changed and she left Seattle today to meet her Brazilian team in Haining, China for the Diamond Ball tournament. The national team is actually in Australia for one more tuneup game against the Opals today. It would have been a wild travel schedule full of too many time changes, that’s why Santos isn’t in Australia as she earlier thought she’d be. She’s joined by Atlanta center Erika Desouza on the flight. Desouza fractured her lower right leg, but returned to play and should compete in the Games.


From: blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com

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Rebecca Romijn and Jerry O’Connell expecting twins

NEW YORK It’s twins for Rebecca Romijn and Jerry O’Connell, Romijn’s publicist Lewis Kay said Monday.

The couple are expecting the babies this winter, Kay told The Associated Press.

They will be the first children for the pair, who tied the knot in Los Angeles in July 2007.

Romijn, 35, stars in the ABC comedy “Ugly Betty.” She was previously married to John Stamos. They divorced in 2005.

O’Connell, 34, recently starred in the TV shows “Crossing Jordan” and “Carpoolers.” His screen credits include “Stand by Me” and “Jerry Maguire.”


From: seattletimes.nwsource.com

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MONTREAL/CANADA Museletter #94

POETRY CURRENTS
Montreal/Canada

HOWL, A FESTIVAL OF ART & REVOLUTION
As this month ends, we’re just hearing the last of the Howl Festival of Art & Revolution which travelled to Toronto last month and to Montreal earlier in October, and finishes this weekend at ABC No Rio in NYC. This last stop on the festival tour is being coordinated by Softskull Press.

IMPURE SPOKEN WORD
This month in Canada sees the spoken word movement finally making history. The occasion is the launch of , an astonishing book that dubs itself as “an examination of the theory, practice and history of ‘spoken word’ in Montreal.” Aptly enough, the 288-page book is an oral history: Through interviews with 75 artists, as well as posters, photographs and manifestos, it documents the origins of the Montreal spoken word scene, and in doing so, serves as a commentary on an entire movement in literature.

represents three years of work by Victoria Stanton and Vincent Tinguely, the book’s authors, as well as an immense effort by Conundrum Press to compile and present the photos, posters and other memorabilia that formed the scene in Montreal. The book launches October 27th in Montreal, November 4th in Toronto and November 25th in Vancouver.

Here’s part of their press release: Impure: Reinventing the WordMontreal Launch:Toronto Launch:Vancouver Launch:Impure: Reinventing the WordImpure: Reinventing the Wordfirst

HALLOWEEN IN VANCOUVER
For Halloween spoken fun, go down to Carral Street in Vancouver as Conscious Development presents: A Soulful Spoken Word Hip Hop Halloween, Monday, October 29th at the Blarney Stone, 216 Carral Street (between Cordova & Water), $5 at the door. The evening features soul singer/spoken word artist Amalia Townsend and MC Shankini with The Golden Section band. Come out costumed as your favorite literary figure, hip hop personality or jazz performer, or just come dressed for Halloween.

VANCOUVER VIDEOPOEM FESTIVAL
The major Vancouver story of the month takes us to the Edgewise Electrolit Centre, which presents the 3rd annual Vancouver Videopoem Festival. This year’s festival fare includes performance, poetry readings, juried and curated videopoem screenings, a construct-your-own videopoem workshop plus an ongoing interactive installation by Ryan Knighton.

Opening the festival on Thursday, November 8th at 7:30 pm is the Off The Page Multimedia Performance Poetry Cabaret featuring commissioned performances by bill bissett, Tanya Evanson, Alice Tepexquintle and Sheri-D Wilson. Poetry readings by Clint Burnham, Jen Lam and Miranda Pearson open the screenings November 9th, 10th and 11th. Juried by Geoff Inverarity, Laiwan and Rita Wong, this year’s screenings include work by Victoria Stanton, Penn Kemp, Scott Russell and Zaffi Gousopoulos and more.

A Bravo!FACT presentation is also included in this year’s lineup: “Elimination Dance” by Michael Ondaatje & Bruce McDonald, and “Kingsway” by Michael Turner & Clancy Dennehy.

And, for those who want to learn how to do it, there will be a Saturday Videopoetry workshop with New York performance artist and poet Adeena Karasick.

The Closing Reception + Party happens at The Web Cafe, 390 West Hastings. Here are the schedule details: Third Annual Vancouver Videopoem Festival
8–12 November 2001, Pacific Cinémathèque, 1131 Howe Street
Info: Raquel Alvaro, Programmer, 604.535.8588 / raquel@videopoem.com
Thursday, November 8th
Off-The-Page Multimedia Performance Poetry Cabaret featuring Vancouver performance poets bill bissett, Tanya Evanson, Alice Tepexcuintle and Sheri-D Wilson, $7, 7:30 pm

Friday, November 9th
Poetry reading by Miranda Pearson, juried videopoetry screening, $7, 7:30 pm

Saturday, November 10th
Introductory videopoem workshop with Adeena Karasick, $35, 2 - 4:30 pm at Pacific Cinémathèque. Please pre-register by phoning 604.535.8588

Poetry reading by Jen Lam, juried videopoetry screening, $7, 7:30 pm

Sunday, November 11th
Poetry reading by Clint Burnham, curated videopoetry screening + Bravo!FACT presentation, $7, 7:30 pm

Closing Reception + Party @ The Web Cafe, 390 West Hastings, admission by donation, 9 pm

Monday, November 12th
Screening of Robert Ashley’s operatic works presented by The Western Front, curator: DB Boyko, artist talk to follow screening, $7, 7:30 pm

November 8 – 12
Installation by Ryan Knighton


Next month you can catch the Montreal launch of a fine new CD/book anthology called . The project is subtitled “Words by Women,” and presents 24 women authors on the page and 15 female voices recorded on CD. It’s an edgy, powerful, focused look at what young Canadian women writers are doing across the country, and features almost all of Canada’s top female spoken word performers. This project is long overdue, as women have been the driving force in the scene here since 1995. This book shows what they’re up to. It’s presented by two publishers, Vehicule Press, which created the book, and our own Wired on Words label, which supplied the content for the CD.

The launch happens on Thursday, November 22nd at La Sala Rossa, 4848 St. Laurent, Montreal.



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