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Economic crisis grips both McCain, Obama campaigns BY ELIZABETH MOORE | elizabeth.moore@newsday.com September 21, 2008 Now, suddenly it's real. The 3 a.m. phone call from Wall Street that kicked the two presidential nominees off the front pages this week also jolted the campaign season to a new level of seriousness, as it becomes clear what a bleak national predicament will be handed over to Barack Obama or John McCain six weeks from now. The bewildering speed of events that started with Lehman Brothers' failure and ended with the prospect of a rescue plan costing taxpayers hundreds of billions created the kind of test that can decide an election, experts say, casting into sharp relief how adroitly the candidates can pivot and offer leadership in response to the crises that will be a daily routine for them in the Oval Office. For Obama, the "change" candidate who promises a tax cut for the middle class, this was the week he had been waiting for, one in which his broad call for an end to business as usual in Washington suddenly had a crystal-clear point of reference. But fellow Democrats waited with growing impatience for him to seize the leadership moment. By contrast, generally McCain, an advocate of deregulation, struggled through the week, seeking to recover from his Monday-morning assertion that "the fundamentals of the economy are strong." "It's important to convey steadiness, consistency, that you have a broad framework that is guiding you in your approach to these issues; that you have a wide range of advisers and know how to use them; and that you are capable of being a calming, reassuring presence on TV and other modes where a president has to send signals to the American people," explained former Clinton adviser William Galston of the Brookings Institution on Thursday

The Roland Petit’s choreographies, is part of the Athens Concert Hall tribute taking place this week.

A group of leading international dance soloists will pay tribute to French master choreographer Roland Petit at the Athens Concert Hall this week.

Lucia Lacarra, Wang Qinin, Svetlana Lunkina, Nikolai Tsiskaridze, Cyril Pierre, Luigi Bonino, Lienz Chang and Li Jun will interpret celebrated pieces choreographed by Petit throughout his distinguished career.

Pieces from ballets include Georges Bizet’s “L’Arlesienne” and “Carmen,” Irving Berlin’s “Cheek to Cheek,” Maurice Jarre’s “Notre Dame de Paris,” Jules Massenet’s “Thais,” Leo Delibes’s “Coppelia,” Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Le Jeune Homme et la Mort” as well as Pink Floyd favorites provided with movement by Petit.

Born in Villemomble near Paris in 1924, Petit trained at the Paris Opera Ballet school before becoming a choreographer and developing landmark works such as “Paradise Lost,” “Les Forains” and “Les amours de Frantz.” In 1954, Petit married Zizi Jeanmaire, a dancer, who became his muse for a number of works. Author grhomeboy