The Australian Open begins the season of tennis championship tours and is the first on the agenda of the Grand Slam series. These are the main four tournaments, also known as the Majors, and they occur from January through October. The Australian Open takes place at the Melbourne Park. This annual Grand Slam event was first established in 1905 and at the time took place on grass courts. This was the standard until 1988 when the court floor was replaced by a hard surface, which is now the standard. The Wimbledon schedule just outside of London is the only Majors tournament to continue to be held on a lawn court.

The Australian Open takes place in January and the two main courts that are used for its competitions are the Rod Laver Arena and Hisense Area. Both of these feature state of the art elements and include retractable roofs that can be open or closed depending on weather circumstances. This is an important because January happens to be in the middle of the Australian summer and temperatures can reach extreme highs and the humidity can be painful. In addition, the Open is one of the most popular events in the city of Melbourne and public safety concerns in such extreme weather are a priority. As of course, is the well being of the tennis players.

The 2010 tournament saw Roger Federer win the men’s singles event and take home his 16th Grand Slam title. He beat out Andy Murray in a contest for the title. The women’s event fell to Serena Williams who is the current reigning World NO 1 female player. The American Williams defeated Justine Henin of Belgium for the title. The US team Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan won the men’s doubles. finals event and the American sister team Serena and Venus Williams won the women’s doubles. The men’s team beat Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimoniic, while the women defeated Cara Black and Liezel Huber. Plans for the 2011 tournament are well underway and it is scheduled to begin on January 17th of next year.

If there is one thing that we are all familiar with it is celebrity endorsements. You can’t turn on the television without seeing Sarah Jessica Parker selling you hair dye or William Shatner convincing you that you need a vacation . It is hard to take many of these endorsements seriously when they are constantly bombarding you with advertisements and cheesy catch phrases. However, not all celebrities are in it for the big bucks that these endorsements bring in. One celebrity in particular that isn’t is Montel Williams
After serving a rather lengthy career in the military, Williams became a public figure in 1991 when he first began The Montel Williams Show. The show became a huge success and was known for helping people reunite with lost loved ones and overcome years of hurt and misunderstanding. Anyone who watched it could see that it was about helping people. After nearly 17 years, the show was cancelled in 2008 but that wasn’t the end for Williams. After being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis , Williams began a new crusade to help people live more healthy active lives. His desire to help others has even extended into this difficult economic time. He understands the struggles that many people face as they attempt to make ends meet. This has lead to his partnership with money mutual .
In an age where every is consumed with doing whatever they have to do to make a bigger paycheck, it is nice to see someone who is willing to do what is right by the people. Through service to his country, being involved in the community, and helping those in difficult situations, Montel Williams has shown time and again what kind of person he is—one that is caring and passionate and strong—and I’m sure there will be more to come.

I’m here in Columbia, Maryland just for one night. I finally had a chance to get away from work see one of my new favorite bands – The Alexandria Kleztet . Today they are booked to play at Ridgewood Village in Silver Spring at 3pm, which isn’t far from Columbia. I managed to combine doing two things with my one night stay. Besides seeing The Alexandria Klezteet today, I’ll got to see ‘Hair Spray’ at Toby’s Dinner Theater last night.

Hairspray was really very fun, too bad it was performed in a Dinner Theater atmosphere, because the production quality was excellent and the performers themselves were very professional. I think it could have been performed in an actual theater. But, I guess Dinner Theaters need to make their money too. Not that I have anything against Dinner Theaters, but really, why not just do legitimate theater, why have to add a dinner to it?

As for The Alexandria Kleztet, I’ll be seeing them tonight, and they combine traditional Eastern European/Jewish music with new alive arrangements. Some members of the band have created their own original songs that bring together world beat, jazz, rock, and classical genres creating a wonderfully unique and very entertaining sound. Alexandria Kleztet is a typical klezmer orchestra, but with a jazzy approach. The electric fret-less bass is unusually quiet. The clarinet is spicy when played along side a raw fiddle, flute and drums. When the band plays a classic Yiddish tune, they actually make it very exciting, so much better than most Yiddish Traditionalists. When they play there own original music, all I can say is it’s very exciting and an adventure it where they’ll take me.

Right now, I’m just killing time in one of the cool hotels , waiting to hear what I consider one of the better traditional Eastern European bands in the United States.