Plenty of Nothing

Burning Palace

This is a detail from a scroll painting of the Kamakura period entitled "Night Attack on the Sanjō Palace". It illustrates an event recorded in the Heiji Monogatari:

    The situation at the Sanjō Palace was beyond description. Soldiers were guarding all the gates, and flames were shooting up here and there. Wild flames filled the heavens, and a tempestuous wind swept up clouds of smoke. The nobles, courtiers, and even ladies-in-waiting of the women's quarters were shot down or slashed to death, for it was thought that they perhaps constituted the whole of Shinzei's family. When they rushed out, so as not to be burned by the fire, they met with arrows. When they turned back, so that they would not be struck by the arrows, they were consumed by the flames. Those who were afraid of the arrows and terrified by the flames even jumped into the wells in large numbers, and of those, too, the bottom ones in a short time had drowned, those in the middle had been crushed to death by their fellows, and those on top had been burned up by the flames themselves. The palace buildings, built one beside the other, were swept by a fierce wind, and ashes spewed forth upon the ground. How could anyone at all have saved himself? The Imperial consorts and the ladies-in-waiting were not destroyed in the burning of the A-fang Palace, but the loss of life among the "moon nobles" and "cloud courtiers" in the burning of this retreat of a Retired Emperor was indeed terrible.

Reischauer and Yamagiwa, Translations from Early Japanese Literature, 2nd ed., p. 302.

You can explore the scroll painting here.

Converging

Chris Metallic

The man standing on the left, wearing #34, Christopher Metallic, has been a missing person since Sunday, November 25th, 2012. He was last seen in Sackville NB, where he is a third-year student at Mount Allison University. He is described as aboriginal, six feet tall, 180 pounds, with short dark hair and glasses. He is from Listuguj, Quebec, just opposite Campbellton NB. At this point he could be anywhere in North America. If you see him phone the RCMP at 1-888-506-7267.

Lady of the Teal Crystals

About the Slovak Extraliga

The Slovak Extraliga is the top professional hockey league in Slovakia. Like the Czech Extraliga it started in 1993 after the breakup of Czechoslovakia and the Czechoslovakian Extraliga.

There are ten clubs, each playing 57 games, plus the national U20 team which will only play a partial season and will not take part in the playoffs. The top eight regular season teams will participate in the playoffs, in best-of-seven quarterfinals, semifinals and finals. There is no plan for relegation, but there could be promotion were another club to abscond to the KHL.

We in North America tend to associate Czechoslovakian hockey with the communist era, but look at the founding dates of most of these Slovak clubs.

The clubs are:

HC '05 Banská Bystrica. The Rams. Founded in 1922 as Slávia Banská Bystrica, the club was incorporated and renamed in 2005, and promoted to the Extraliga in 2007. Banská Bystrica Ice Stadium holds 3,000. Colours: red, white and black. Banská Bystrica is in the dead centre of Slovakia. [Michal Handzus of the San Jose Sharks, Clayton Stoner of the Minnesota Wild, Dana Tyrell of theTampa Bay Lightning and Tanner Glass of the Pittsburgh Penguins have signed with them.]

HC Košice. Founded in 1962. Two-time Czechoslovak, six-time Slovak champions, and winners of the 1998 IIHF Continental Cup. Their rink, Steel Aréna, holds 8,378. Peter Bondra started out with Košice. They wear dark blue, white and orange. Košice is in eastern Slovakia, close to the Hungarian border. It's a steel town.

MHC Mountfield. Part of the Mountfield sports empire that also includes HC Mountfield České Budějovice. Founded 1932 as Slávia Martin. They won the 2009 IIHF Continental Cup. Their rink is the Martin Ice Stadium (capacity 4,200), in Martin, Žilina Region, which is named after Saint Martin. Blue and white.

HK Nitra. Founded 1926. Joined the Extraliga in 2002. Double blue and white. Who is that on the team crest? If they're bringin' down the house, Samson? If they're holding up the rest of the league, Atlas? Their house is Nitra Aréna (capacity 5,300).

ŠHK 37 Piešťany. Founded in 1937, and promoted to the Extraliga this year to fill the space left by departed Slovan Bratislava. Blue and yellow. EASTON Aréna holds 3,500. Piešťany is a spa town in western Slovakia.

HK Propad. The Chamoises. Blue and white. Propad Ice stadium holds 4,500. Propad is a resort town in the Tatra Mountains. Founded 1926.

HK 36 Skalica. This hockey club began in 1936, hence the name. They were promoted to the Slovak Extraliga in 1996. Ziggy Pálffy has played for them since 2007. Skalica is right on the Czech border. Skalica Ice Stadium holds 4,100. Team colours: green and white.

HK Dukla Trenčín. The Soldiers began in 1963 as an army team. 1992 Czechoslovak champions and three-time Slovak champions. Their rink is the Pavol Demitra Ice Stadium, which holds 6,150. The club has also retired Demitra's number 38. Yellow and red. [Tomas Kopecky of the Florida Panthers has signed with Trenčín.]

Mestský Hokejový Klub Žilina. Wolves. Founded 1925. 2006 Extralida champions. Green, yellow and black. Garmin Arena has room for 6,200 fans. Žilina is in the same region as Martin.

HKm Zvolen. Knights. Founded 1927. They won Slovak Extraliga in 2001 and the IIHF Continental Cup in 2005. Blue, yellow and red. Zvolen Ice Stadium holds 7,038. Zvolen is in central Slovakia.

HK Orange 20. Slovakia's U20 team are included in the early part of the season to prepare them for the 2013 World Juniors to be held in Ufa, Russia, from December 26, 2012, to January 5, 2013.

HC Slovan Bratislava, the strongest club in Slovakian hockey history, and the reigning Extraliga champions, left to join the KHL this year. I'll write about them when I get to the KHL. A club named Ice Tigers Nové Zámky play in the mainly Hungarian MOL Liga.

Japanese Word of the Day: Takarazuka

Yachiyo Kasugano as Prince Genji, 1952. Source. TakaWiki.

A hundred years ago or so it was a common strategy of urban railway companies to construct a public attraction at the end of a new line to help ensure a regular ridership. That's how Ottawa's Britannia Park came about. In 1913 the owners of Osaka's Hankyu Railway put up a grand theatre at the end of the Osaka-Takarazuka line, and in so doing helped create a new kind of Japanese spectacle, the Takarazuka Revue.

Takarazuka employs a large all-female troupe of singers, dancers and actors who perform lavish showpieces mixing Western and Japanese entertainment traditions. The performers, many of whom specialize in male roles, have a huge female fan following.

James A. Michener, aware that the Japaneses novelists of his day liked to send their characters to the theatre, structured his 1954 novel Sayonara around the Takarazuka Revue.

Nosferatu

Complete film here.

Inglis and Barrington

Dutch Greenock

The Dutch Gable House on William Street, right, was built in 1755, restored in the 1980s, and is undergoing further renovation today. Read about it here.

Cowdenbeath visit Cappielow today.

Morton have held third place for seven weeks now, and today's results are unlikely to dislodge them from that position. Second-place Dunfermline play Dumbarton, which is tantamount to a guaranteed three points and might allow the Pars to regain first place if Partick can't handle Livingston, who are six games without a loss.

Morton fans are pleased to see St Mirren in eleventh place in the SPL, on a six-game losing skid, and only one point ahead of Dundee. St Mirren's demotion would not be as epochal as Morton's promotion, but it would be a pretty nice consolation prize. The Renfrewshire Derby has not been a part of league play since the year 2000. St Mirren host Dundee today.

Morton's Archie Campbell is the First Division scoring leader with 11 goals in league play. Second is Steven Lawless of Partick Thistle with 8.

Airdrie United Reserves ended Greenock Morton Reserves' winning streak with a 0 - 0 draw.

League restructuring. The SFL proposes an amalgamation of leagues into a 16-10-18 structure (the two extra clubs being the Celtic and Rangers reserves). The SPL wants to carve a second 12-team division out of the SFL. Brave prediction: neither will happen.

[Morton win 1 - 0. Goal by Hawke. Partick and Dunfermline also win. St Mirren beat Dundee.]

Pohang host Gyeongnam tomorrow. [3 - 3.]

The Premier, 2008