I can’t imagine a world without David Bowie.
I guess I did for the first ten years of my life before he released “Space Oddity.” From then on, however, I followed Mr. Bowie through every stage, every musical and stylistic change. For a young black kid who was listening to soul music, but also was raised on the Beatles and Rolling Stones in the 1960s, Bowie was there.
My closest friends and I bonded together in grade school with our love of sports and love of rock music. Yes, we listened to all of the James Brown, Motown and Stax records of the period, but unlike the other kids in Englewood, we were fans of Elton John and David Bowie and Queen. In fact, a schoolmate from back then, Leroy Fennell, preternaturally skinny, was the Bowie fanatic. He had his hair straightened and wore black pants, white shirts and a black vest to look like the Thin White Duke. (Since I was chubby, wore glasses and took piano lessons, I became the school’s Elton John.)
Looking back, Bowie was different, pushed the barriers in music mash-ups, clothes, just allowing people to be different. Leroy and I caught quite a bit of flak, but we didn’t care – we listened to what we liked, a lifestyle that continues to this day, 45 years later. Ziggy was big with us; we all (the third member of our group was Shardez Gibson) had Diamond Dogs, we went with him to his Philly soul period (David Live and Young Americans); went back into space for Station To Station. David Live and Station To Station had to be repurchased due to the grooves being worn out.
The first time I saw Bowie was in 1976 or 1977, the Station To Station tour. First off, instead of an opening act, Bowie showed the 1929 surrealist film “Un Chien Andalou” by Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali, best known as the film with the eyeball being sliced by a straight razor. Being a silent film, Bowie introduced the rest of the world to Kraftwerk, the German band that hadn’t made tit across the pond before this. I haven’t seen the film since, but I remember it – Bowie giving me some culture. And that’s what he did so often – through music, costumes; music video was made for Bowie to introduce the world to things he found interesting, incorporating so many different forms and idioms into himself and releasing them through his own artistic easy and ears.
The Berlin period took some time for me to understand, but I bought them and eventually realized how good this electronic but simple stark music was. Heroes remains one of the best songs ever written in my opinion – optimism in the face of utter bleakness. I went with him in his move back toward pop with Scary Monsters and especially Let’s Dance. The was a great show – stripped down, again accentuating soul which he always returned to after a certain point.
Tonight was a modest album and the Glass Spider Tour which followed didn’t do much for me, but once again, it was high theatricality. I love the under-appreciated Black Tie, White Noise, another soul based look at the world through Bowie’s eyes. The years 1995 – 2003 brought forth more music: some good, some not so, but still very interesting and avant guard. There were stories about him having a heart attack in 2004 and rumors that Bowie was retired. I call this his “Marlene Dietrich – I Want To Be Alone” period. You would see pictures of him around NYC with his daughter that he had with wife Iman. It was cool – he had given so much to us, he deserved a rest.
Then, suddenly, out of the blue came more activity; a new album was released in 2013 on his birthday. The Next Day was very good, but reminded me of the hole in my experience the previous 10 years had been without any word from Bowie (it was my pick as best album of 2013). Then the David Bowie exhibit came to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago in 2014. It was then that I really understood how influential he had been to art, video, costuming, choreography as well as music. Usually at big museum exhibits, programs that suggested 1 or 2 hours to fully review the exhibit I would go through in 15-25 minutes, skipping the redundant and focusing just on the things I wanted to see. The Bowie exhibit suggested 90 minutes and I spent every minute there. With a radio looking receiver hanging from your neck, earphones in your ears, the music, background and even interviews changed as you moved through the exhibit. And it had everything, from costumes to instruments, to even his coke spoon from the 1980s.
Then came news of a new CD – Blackstar, to be released on his 69th birthday. I received it in the mail last Friday, loaded it on my iPod and started listening. Too brooding for the Indignant elder child, I turned it off; I’ll get to it next week, I said. Then to wake up this morning to learn that it was a parting gift to the world: David Bowie had died at the age of 69 after battling cancer, privately with his family. Of course, I listened to it this morning on my way to work, and have been immersing myself in Bowie music ever since. This may last some time.

A few weeks ago, I posted my list of the best films of the year but time off for the holidays allowed my to catch up to a couple more films that certainly were among the best films of the year and: I did see them in 2015. So, since it’s my list I have to add these two films:

12. The Hateful Eight dir. Quentin Tarantino – I caught the 70mm roadshow edition and long time readers of this site and close friends know that a Tarantino film is likely to end up on my “best of” list and this is no exception. This film, QT’s second western is an “Agatha Christie” mystery in a Western. The omnipresent Samuel L. Jackson hasn’t been used this effectively in years (not even by Tarantino) and neither has Kurt Russell.
Unless you live in a cave, you know that this is a film about a meeting of several cowboys in an outpost during a snowstorm. All eight people have secrets and none of the eight are innocent. How this all plays out (in Tarantino’s usual crude language and ultra-violence) is very well done and keeps you guessing.
I can’t say that this is Tarantino at his very best, but it was damn good.
11. The Big Short, dir. Adam McKay, I had never heard of McKay, mostly because he directed comedies like the Anchorman movies, which I have avoided like the plague. But McKay’s comedic talents come to fore in bringing some laughs to a very complex story – the story of several guys who felt that the mortgage banking business was a bubble built on deceptive banking practices and who bet against the housing market in 2007-2009.
Extremely excellent performances by Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, and a small part by Brad Pitt showed how these guys ended up making hundreds of millions of dollars by questioning the banking assumptions and claims of the industry. As I left, I posted on Facebook that I was ashamed to be in the banking industry. But for the layman who is interested in what caused the worldwide economic recession of the last decade, but are scared that it is too complex and also don’t want to be lectured to, this is you film.

So, re-stacking the films, here is my final order:

12. Love & Mercy, dir. Bill Polhad
11. Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron dir. Joss Whedon
10. The People vs. Fritz Bauer dir. Lars Klaume
9. Inside Out dir. by Pete Docter and Ronnie Del Carmen
8. Star Wars: The Force Awakens dir. J.J. Abrams
7. Ex Machina dir. Alex Garland
6. The Hateful Eight dir. Quentin Tarantino
5. Legend, dir. Brian Helgeland
4. The Big Short, dir. Adam McKay
3. Spectre, dir. by Sam Mendes
2. Spotlight, dir. by Tom McCarthy
1. Mad Max: Fury Road, dir. by George Miller

January is usually a time when one doesn’t think much about baseball, except for pining for spring training. Except for the fact that every year, many of baseball’s greats and not-so-greats spend time near their phones, hoping for a call from the Baseball Hall of Fame that, hopefully, they had received the 80% of votes cast required to be enshrined in the Hall next summer.
There were several players who should have been voted in who didn’t make it (Jeff Bagwell who had 71.6% of the vote and Tim Raines who garnered 69.8% – hopefully next year for these two), and the two who will be enshrined: Ken Griffey, Jr. and Mike Piazza. Griffey appeared on 99.3% of the votes, just three shy of being the first ever unanimous selection. On first thought, I asked myself what was wrong with the three guys who didn’t vote for him? Are they idiots? Or do they just want to be contrary? The only excuse I can validate is that they wanted to use their 10 votes for other people since it was a lead-pipe synch that Griffey was going in.
He was a great outfielder and big home run hitter – considered the heir apparent to Mays and Aaron. Griffey was going to hit more home runs that anyone ever, but injuries slowed his pace and probably shaved 2-3 years off his career. Still, he ended up with 630 home runs, drove in 1,836 runs, won the MVP award in 1997, was an All Star selection 13 times, 10 time Gold Glove winner. In other words, whatever his team needed, “Junior” did it.
I was never a Mike Piazza fan: he was arrogant, demanding at one point that he be the highest paid player in the sport despite not being the best player (Griffey, Jr. and others were better in my opinion). Also, as with everyone who played in the Steroid Era, there were rumors of PED usage with Piazza, but they have never been confirmed.
However, it cannot be argued that Piazza was not one of the best offensive catchers of his era: 427 home runs, lifetime .308 batting average, 1,335 RBIs. Solid numbers for most HOF members, but awesome for catchers, whose squatting regularly shortened careers, limited the number of infield singles, and reduced offensive production.
What is interesting about this years ballot were the increased number of voters who cast for the poster boys for the Steroid Era, Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds. Clemens received 199 votes and Bonds 195, perhaps signaling that both men belong in the Hall despite apparent PED usage. An argument can be made that they would have made the Hall based on the careers they had before there was any idea that they were doping. I think that’s a load of crap – they cheated and if they ever make the HOF, it should be posthumously.
Next year, Bagwell and Raines should make it, but there are three top first time candidates: Manny Ramirez, Ivan Rodriguez and Vladimir Guerrero. Manny, who tested positive for PEDs twice and was suspended both times for getting caught, may end up in the same baseball Limbo that Clemens, Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Mark MacGwire and others who used or are alleged to have used performance enhancing drugs. “Pudge” Rodriguez is another great catcher who should make the Hall. He was almost as good as Piazza offensively, but Rodriguez was also one of the best defensive catchers in the game at the time. Guerrero was an offensive powerhouse, from the Manny Sanguillen school of swinging at any pitch I can reach. The latter two should get in.
So, congratulations to Junior and Piazza and for the first time in decades, no more arguments in support of Pete Rose from me.

Now, many men my age have been hazed. To join a team, a fraternity, a club, there is a level of hazing. I can’t say that I had much especially since being the member of a fraternity never meant very much to me, certainly not enough to be worth taking the emotional and yes, sometimes physical abuse. There would have been a fight, I would have gotten the hell beaten out of me, but I would have done my best to take one or more of the “brothers” out with me.
This is extreme hazing, but it seems like the ante has been upped significantly. Three basketball players at Ooltewah High School in Tennessee have been charged with raping a teammate in an apparent hazing incident. The teens face aggravated rape and aggravated assault charges in connection with injuries to a teammate, who underwent surgery after being assaulted while attending a basketball tournament in Gatlinburg. Tennessee law defines aggravated rape as a rape in which the defendant either has a weapon, causes bodily injury or is aided or abetted by another. None of the teens has been named because they’re all juveniles.
How this came to me attention was through a story that the school has come up with an unusual method of handling the situation. One would think that they would try and find out who is involved and let anyone not involved play the games, but the school is canceling the rest of the school’s season. The season has been called off “so that the criminal justice system can work the way we expect,” Hamilton County Schools Superintendent Rick Smith said.
Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association executive director Bernard Childress said this is the first time he could remember a school canceling a season for disciplinary reasons. Smith spoke before the school board held a closed executive session. He said he canceled the rest of the season because he was concerned public speculation about the case “could threaten the integrity” of the investigation.
“This decision is not a reflection upon the coaching staff,” Smith said. “Indeed, law enforcement officials have to date found no evidence any adult acted improperly. Likewise, this decision is not meant to punish the boys on the team who are innocent of any wrongdoing and simply want to play high school sports.”
Scott Bennett, the Hamilton County School District’s attorney, said the district will study its anti-hazing policy and make sure it’s being communicated to students. Bennett also said law enforcement officials in Hamilton County and Sevier County, where Gatlinburg is, told the school district not to conduct its own investigation.
The Hamilton County district attorney’s office and the sheriff’s office are investigating whether an “ongoing pattern of assaults” may have been committed “under the guise of hazing.” The district attorney’s office said in its release this week that nobody has reported any criminal behavior in Hamilton County by anyone associated with the team thus far.
Continuing the season would be impossible – who is involved and who isn’t is still under investigation and someone considered innocent one day could be found to have been involved the next day or vice versa. I’m glad that the school is taking this step; this is a very serious and heinous crime. More important however, what is going on here? I don’t want to sound like the old “times were simpler/better back then” whenever back then was, even if it was only 15 minutes. But sexual assault causing injury requiring surgery? Who wants to do that type of thing, and to a teammate who is on your side?
This is one situation that needs to be stomped out, and the kids involved need punishment or very serious psychological help.

I want to like Peyton Manning. He seems like a decent guy; the kind of guy who would be fun to hang out with; despite his Hall of Fame pedigree, he appears to be down to earth and self deprecating. On the other hand, Manning is one of the biggest owners of Papa John’s pizza franchises and he appears in numerous commercials with John Schnatter, the oligarch who fights any increase in the minimum wage or Obamacare or other benefits to his workers while he resides in a mansion that is larger than some Third World countries. If Manning adheres to Schnatter’s business model and philosophy, I have problems.
While I took some time off over the holidays, Al Jazeera broadcast an explosive documentary, “The Dark Side: The Secret World Of Sports Doping,” which links the NFL quarterback and some Major League Baseball players to performance-enhancing human growth hormone. The story claims that Manning used HGH while rehabbing after spinal surgery to relieve stress on his neck and spine.
The most damming of the allegations against Manning are undercover recordings of a former worker at the Guyer Institute of Molecular Medicine in Indiana, where Manning was once treated. On the tapes, former pharmacy intern Charlie Sly says he shipped human growth hormone to Manning’s wife in Florida. “It would never be under Peyton’s name; it would always be under her name,” Sly said.
Sly recanted his story on YouTube before the documentary came out, but Deborah Davies, the reporter behind the investigation said the team had already confirmed the information with an additional anonymous source she called “utterly credible and well-placed.” “When a second source confirms everything Sly knows about Peyton Manning, it adds to confidence that he’s telling us the truth,” Davies said.
I’m not surprised that a guy like Sly would fold under the scrutiny of the mighty NFL (you only have to watch the film “Concussion” to see how the league handles comments that don’t hone to the party line). Like hungry wolves, announcers and media pundits worked overtime to criticize both the report and the network. CBS’s Jim Nantz, refused to cover the story at all when he covered the Broncos game last weekend. “If we talk about it, we would only continue to breathe life into a story that, on all levels, is a non-story,” said Nantz. “Why add another layer to it?”
ESPN analyst, right wing nut job and long past his prime icon Mike Ditka called the story and the network itself “garbage.” “Here’s the thing that bothers me,” Ditka said on Sunday’s episode of “NFL Countdown.” “Al Jazeera is not a credible news organization. They’re out there spreading garbage. That’s what they do, yet we give them credibility by talking about it.”
However, Al Jazeera is no fly-by-night propaganda machine but one of the largest news organizations on the planet, with 80 bureaus around the world and a massive English-language viewership and readership. It has won dozens of awards for its investigative and documentary work, including an Emmy and two Peabody awards. In my experience, their reporting has been spot on in terms of facts.
Other journalists’ reflexive dismissal of the network’s allegations without bothering to examine the evidence says more about the traditional sports media and its prejudice against a news source with an Arabic name than it does about the folks on the investigative team at Al Jazeera, which spent eight months on the investigation.
What makes this story troubling is that while Manning has denied taking the performance-enhancing drugs, he has not denied that they were shipped to his wife. “Any medical treatments that my wife received — that’s her business,” Manning told ESPN. “That has nothing to do with me.” Sounds almost word for word like what many of the baseball players who testified before Congress said when confronted by perjury charges.
Sly’s testimony also linked the Phillies’ Ryan Howard and the Nationals’ Ryan Zimmerman to performance-enhancing drugs. Both have sued the network. Zimmerman’s lawsuit accuses Al Jazeera of “[choosing] to publish their defamatory story in an attempt to stir scandal and increase Al Jazeera’s low ratings.” Notice that the charge attacks the network, not the facts behind the report. If it had been ABC, NBC, CBS, ESPN or any other “American” network, the charges would be investigated, but that would never happen because the big networks and “the Worldwide Leader” are so deeply in financial bed with the NFL and MLB that it isn’t in their interests to expose the underbelly of icons like Manning. Adding to the air of conflict of interest, The New York Daily News revealed that Nantz and Manning have both been represented by sports broadcasting agent Sandy Montag, who in turn helped Ari Fleischer, former press secretary to George W. Bush, set up his sports communications practice. Fleischer now represents Manning.
Again, I want to like Peyton Manning. I’m not sure I believe him. I’d like to, but I’m not sure I can. Only a true investigation will bring out the truth; I hope one is being prepared if not working even as we speak.

Professional sports franchises move occasionally, mostly over money: not enough support from local fans, but more likely because the city the team currently plays in won’t pony up the millions to finance a new stadium. I have always been against franchises moving unless the residents of a city are really in dire economic straits, or if owners open their big mouths and get run out of town.
Now that the 2015 NFL regular season is over, the non-playoff teams are making plans for next season, and there is nothing the league would like better than to have a team in the second largest American city/market – Los Angeles. There hasn’t been a pro team in La La Land since the Raiders and Rams left in 1995. All kinds of scenarios have been floated over the years to get a new stadium built in L.A. and get a franchise or even two to return. Economic volatility has helped keep a stadium from being built and at the present tmie, there is still nowhere for a L.A. franchise to play, but that hasn’t stopped three franchises from filing paperwork requesting permission to relocate there – the San Diego Chargers, Oakland Raiders and St. Louis Rams.
All three franchises have been unable to extort, I mean convince, taxpayers to give them new stadiums. Of course, the Raiders and Rams left L.A. to begin with, returning to their original locations Both St. Louis and Oakland have rabid fan bases that, to me, would make me less disposed to allow them to move. The teams are generating millions of dollars from their fans, who cares if they make even more millions? How much is enough?
More interesting is the argument from Chargers CEO and team president Dean Spanos, who commented that the Chargers are “sad to have reached this point,” they still want out. Spanos’ “Over 25 percent of our business comes from Riverside County, Orange County and the Los Angeles County area. Another team or teams going in there would have a huge impact on that. I think that is what really was the catalyst that got this whole thing going because when the Rams decided to make their move there, this was a move to protect our business more than anything, so we find ourselves where we do right now.’ It doesn’t help that Qualcomm Stadium was built in 1967 and lacks the modern amenities like skyboxes and executive suites that boost profits. The NFL has a very hard salary cap, so all teams have “cost certainty” so even if they generate more revenue, it won’t turn into better on-field product.
However, there is one way in which a team can get invited to leave, and that’s but insulting the paying customers. In the past it worked in Minnesota for the North Stars, and to some extent for the old Cleveland Browns under owner Art Modell. Don’t get what you want and dog the fans in the press, and you will move because the locals hate you so much.
This appears to be the tactic that Rams owner Stan Kroenke is taking. A lifelong Missouri resident, the Rams filing basically craps all over the town and its fans. The filing says that the St. Louis market is a dud and attendance is bad despite “significant” investments in the team, and St. Louis failed to keep a big promise they made to lure the team from Los Angeles in 1995 – to provide the Rams with a “first-tier” stadium in St. Louis.
It seems that the Rams, certainly Kroenke is more than willing to burn some bridges. “St. Louis is not a three professional team market,” the application states in a bold heading, referring to the city’s baseball Cardinals, NHL Blues and NFL Rams.
“Compared to all other U.S. cities, St. Louis is struggling,” the team states in its application.
It cites studies that demonstrate that “Los Angeles is a strong market with great opportunity, while St. Louis is a market that will in all likelihood be unable to sustain three professional sports teams.”
I have always maintained that the ownership of a sports franchise is a civic pact – if an owner does everything he, she or it can to put a winning team on the field/ice/diamond/pitch, fans should support the team. In that, the Rams under Kroenke overstates the front office.”The current Rams ownership’s investment in the on-the-field Rams team has been significant,” the Rams’ application states. “The Rams have consistently spent to the salary cap in each year under Stan Kroenke and have significantly increased the coaching and scouting budgets. … Despite these investments and engagements, Rams attendance since 2010 has been well below the league’s average. The combination of low attendance and the lack of pricing power … has consistently placed the Rams in the low fourth quartile in gross ticketing receipts generally between 60% and 70% of the NFL average per game for the regular season.”
This “investment” once again reminds everyone that just because you spend money doesn’t mean that you spend it wisely. There are lots of teams that spent lots of money on players and still sucked. That seems to be the case here since the Rams have not had a winning season since 2003 after finishing this season with a 7-9 record. The Cardinals can tell you that they get outstanding fan support. I’m absolutely certain that if the Rams didn’t suck for over a decade, the fans would be coming out in droves (and they still do buy tickets in good quantities).
“St. Louis is already the smallest market of the three in both population and gross domestic product (GDP) before factoring in future growth,” the team’s application states. Now, it’s not like the city and state aren’t willing to give the Rams a new stadium: a task force has advocated a $1.1 billion riverfront stadium proposal calling for $250 million from NFL team ownership, a $300 million loan from the NFL and $160 million from the sale of seat licenses.
The Rams don’t like it because the Rams have to come up with more money than they want and the taxpayers shell out less.. “No NFL club would be interested” in the new St. Louis stadium, the team’s application states. “Any NFL club that signs on to this proposal in St. Louis will be well on the road to financial ruin, and the League will be harmed.” (“Road to financial ruin???” An NFL franchise? An enterprise that generates over $9 billion per year? Hyperbole is now turned into BS.)
Why would this be ruinous? “The private contribution is the largest of any non-Top 10 market since 2000. The public contribution is only $355 million – less than the $400 million the (task force) promised the (NFL) owners in New York.” No, Kroenke would like to put almost off the financial risk on the taxpayers and governmental entities. And since he doesn’t turn a large enough profit, he wants to take his toys and go elsewhere.
Here in Chicago, demands of this type from the Bears got people to hate then CEO Michael McCaskey. It took an outlay of money from the team to get refurbished Soldier Field, and removal of McCaskey in favor of his brother and Team President Ted Phillips. It appears that the league may have to approve the Rams’ move. The insults leveled on the city by Stan Kroenke may mean that the team has nowhere to play next year and no fans would come out if they do try and play in Missouri.

The NFL regular season is over which means that the first motion of business is to fire coaches that have been on the hot seat, at least in the media and to fans. As always, some rumors turn out to be true; others turn out to be completely false; and sometimes there is a true surprise from left field. This week, we got some of all three:
• One of the coaches reportedly on the hottest seat was Colts Head Coach Chuck Pagano. The Colts underperformed in great part because of injuries to franchise level quarterback Andrew Luck. Luck was truly horrible this year and for the first several weeks of the season, pundits were at a loss to explain why. Yes, the offensive line was porous, but still he was making bad passes all over the place; throwing lots of interceptions. Pagano was supposed to be toast, but Owner Jim Irsay is anything but predictable. Instead of getting the boot, Pagano and G.M. Ryan Grigson were both signed to new four year contracts. Who knew?
• The four year playoff draught by the New York Giants led to speculation that the Giants would fire 13-year Head Coach Tom Coughlin. Well, always the company man, Coughlin did the honorable thing and resigned. Coughlin made a touching speech thanking nearly everyone, but especially touching was Coughlin’s comments about quarterback Eli Manning. Manning wiped away tears as Coughlin said that he was what one would want in a son.
Despite two Super Bowl Championships, personally, I was surprised that Coughlin survived the past couple of season in the hot bed of “win now at any costs” – New York City. I’ve never been a big fan of Coughlin anyway – I always thought he was too “old school,” too stodgy, too set in his ways, too much a disciplinarian to connect with today’s athlete. My opinion hasn’t changed. Coughlin says he’s not finished coaching but at 69, he may not have much say in the matter.
• The NFL is becoming less patient than ever. In the past, coaches had 3-5 years to turn around a franchise, but more often than ever before, coaches are on a 1-2 year leash. To no one’s great surprise, after one season and a 5-11 finish, the San Francisco 49ers fired head coach Jim Tomsula. Tomsula was promoted to replace Jim Harbaugh, who led the 49ers to Super Bowl XLVII. But the 49ers looked disoriented and former all star QB Colin Kaepernick continued to regress from his Super Bowl years, eventually losing the starting job to former first round pick turned journeyman Blaine Gabbert.
• Again, no one could be surprised that the dysfunctional Cleveland Browns would continue to be mismanaged by changing coaches yet again. Cleveland owner Jimmy Haslam released a statement through the Browns’ official website indicating he’d fired his head coach in Mike Pettine, as well as general manager Ray Farmer. When your most significant story concerns a petulant, spoiled, drunken underachieving quarterback (Johnny Manziel, of course) you know that your team is making the wrong kind of headlines.
• The biggest surprise so far came last night when Tampa Bay fired Lovie Smith. The Bucs were only 8-24 in the two years under Smith, but the team showed much improvement especially with a rookie at QB – Jameis Winston.
• There were coaches who stayed: Mike McCoy will remain as head coach in San Diego (Los Angeles?); Jeff Fisher will remain head coach with the Rams (Los Angeles?), and I admit that I was very surprised with the stories that Sean Payton would not remain the head coach with New Orleans. So, I guess the pundits were surprised when it was announced that Payton would remain on the Saints sideline (undoubtedly bad news for teams with head coaching vacancies).
I wouldn’t doubt that this is the last of the coaching changes. It will be very interesting to see what transpires, especially once the playoffs end and current assistants are available to interview for open jobs.