ESPN and the CWS, bad officiating, and a choral blunder!

Obviously, being in South Carolina, and a lifetime member of the Carolina Alumni Association, and having my Official University Ring, in both regular (which I've rarely worn, mostly at alumni banquets) and in Bicentennial (a variant of the ring used in 2001) forms, I have heard plenty of complaints about the ESPN broadcast of the NCAA Division I Baseball Championship Series between South Carolina and California-Los Angeles. The pro-Westwood bias is clearly evident, from all the complaints I have been reading this evening from blogs and posts. The NCAA needs to take this off ESPN.

Mike Pereira, who just joined Fox Sports as an analyst on NFL officiating, could easily show the stupidity of FIFA officials at this World Cup. The Mirror tabloid in the UK had an interview with him about video replay after a blatant illegal use of the hands no-call that led to a goal between Ireland and France in a World Cup qualifier. Now FIFA wants to crack down on replays on video boards in light of a few bad calls that have been made during the World Cup. FIFA doesn't believe in Video Goal Judges and even in the US-Slovenia controversy the British media had to remember that the US is a nation that embraces

Speaking of errors, I am hitting the CyberBass tonight to check errors after our entire Summer I Chorus at South Carolina blundered badly during "Gloria" in Beethoven's Mass in C Major, Opus 86 Sunday (Soprano Ashley Briggs, Alto Janet Hopkins, Tenor Jaeyoon Kim, Bass Jacob Will, Conductor Joseph Modica (Ben Ebner on Tuesday; the doctoral student conductor does the Tuesday show, as I have learned from both Summer Choruses), Piano Rosemarie Suniga) that Mr. Modica forced us to cut and to restart midway through that piece. I was humiliated as this was the first time I had seen this blunder. I love doing these summer choruses, but please I want a church music leader back home who will give us the real music.

And speaking of which, Ingrid Schlueter's Crosstalk show had a commentary Friday on the book Why Johnny Can't Sing Hymns: How Pop Culture Rewrote the Hymnal. This should be serious reading for those who find (for Catholics) the OCP/GIA or (for Protestants) the secular publishers taking over church music. It's not neutral. Churches that play "party" type songs (such as the "He Reigns Medley") on Good Friday should be shot once you hear this commentary and learned about the seriousness of real sacred music as I did that Good Friday with the Squirrel. ◙