Stryker Game Next Thursday Night

 The Empire Stryker's indoor soccer team has another home game this Thursday night vs. Utica City FC, who typically usually has a solid team. It should be a great game considering the level the Stryker's have been playing at. The overall intensity of the team has increased monumentally this season. I don't know if you're familiar with "runners high" or not but if you are, you understand that when you're running, you go through a period of time where you don't think you can make it through any more strides. Once you push through that point where you thought you couldn't keep going, your body rewards you with the "runner's high". 

This is when you feel as if it's easy (pleasurable really) to keep going and feels completely natural to continue. It seems as though the Stryker team has found their "runners high", so to speak, in the flow of the games. It makes it so fun to watch because of the gorgeous plays that emerge in that state of the game. I hope this level of play continues and the team is consistent with this type of improvement. The fans have been helpful, the entire Toyota Arena is increasingly welcoming, and the Stryker team is pushing past former performance boundaries all around, improving the overall experience. 

The next home game is on February 5th is at the Toyota Arena in Ontario, California at 6:35pm. Parking is $15. For more information, visit theempirestrykers.com. 

Stryker Games this Season

 The Empire Strykers have two upcoming home games. The first home game is on Thursday, January 22nd vs. the San Diego Sockers at 6:35pm (doors open at 5:35) and Sunday, January 25th vs. the Kansas City Comets at 4:05pm (doors open at 3:05). The home games are at the Toyota Arena in Ontario, California. Parking tickets have increased and are now $15 per car. For tickets to the game or more information about the Empire Strykers, visit TheEmpireStrykers.com. 

Blackbird by Harvard Opportunes

 

Heritage in a Performance

 

My Madrigal

Madrigal: "a part-song for several voices, especially one of the Renaissance period, typically arranged in elaborate counterpoint and without instrumental accompaniment." -Bing

"Madrigal is the name of a form of poetry, the exact nature of which has never been decided in English. It is one of the types of poetry in the 18th century figurative system of human knowledge..." -Wikipedia 

One more time

If I could see your face

See that smile light up

Your bright eyes

I would, I love you. 

God Willing

We stare out the window at the pouring rain. 

I go to school and sit at the piano to write. 

The words emerge through the keys. 

The thunderstorm, the new baby, the beautiful family, the rain. 

But there's no record of it.

Just the building of the song, the love of playing. 

My parents, in their love I play as if I can do anything I wish for.

Moo

I look at the cow's face, and I think she's staring at me

I'm sorry for eating meat, I think. 

Her nose drips and I wonder if she's crying.

I learn about her importance, and I hope to appreciate her more. 

I laugh out loud when the kids cheer as she picks her nose with her tongue. 

I thought about her four toes while she stood on only two. 

I looked at her hip bones standing proudly on her lower back. 

Her rack of ribs.

The way her body twitches and her tail swings to ward off the bugs. 

She stared me in the eyes. 

I gave her a little smile.