- Way to go, Argentinean farmers. These guys have had enough of their government’s proposed tax hikes on export crops and dammit, they’re doing something about it. First, the farmers went on strike, always a solid first step in your crusade against The Man. Refusing to produce any more of valuable crops that your country needs both for its own use and for export tends to get people’s attention. But the farmers didn’t stop there; in fact, they were just getting started. As the strike headed into its third tension-filled week, the farmers built highway blockades on some of the most important roads through Argentina’s agricultural heartland. One of the country biggest exporters of beef, soybeans and wheat has been all but crippled by the strike, which means it’s having its desired effect. The barricades resulted in massive backups and fisticuffs at at least one location, also a positive. Adding violence and social unrest to the mix, another vital ingredient in any good social dissidence. I’ll be looking for some riots, property destruction and maybe a march or two on the nation’s capital to complete a successful uprising, Argentinean farmers, but so far, so good.
- Overall, this NCAA Tournament weekend has been horrifically bad, with very few good games. Only the continued, improbable run of underdog Davidson and the scintillating Xavier-West Virginia overtime game in the Sweet 16 saved us from a total lost weekend of hoops. Consider the fact that of the eight Sweet 16 games, seven were decided by double-digit margins. Of those seven, six were decided by margins of 17 points or more. In other words, there were far too many blowouts for a round this deep in the tournament. Yes, games like UCLA-Western Kentucky were close until 6-7 minutes left, but did anyone really get the sense that WKU was going to surge back and win? For the most part, too many of these games were like the Michigan State-Memphis game, a contest that saw Memphis bolt to a 50-20 halftime lead and render the second half of a primetime game meaningless. I don’t know that there’s a solution to this, because regardless of how you match teams up to begin the tournament, at some point teams that advance 2-3 rounds begin to play one another. Let’s hope this was just an anomaly, a spike in the number of bad matchups that exacerbated flaws and shortcomings in particular teams. Maybe teams like Stanford (20-point loss), Michigan State (18-point loss) and Washington State (21-point loss) just came up against teams that were the absolute worst possible matchup for them at that time. As a college basketball fan, I have to hope that because this is my favorite time of year and seeing it have a down year would just make the entire sports year as a whole a lot less appealing.
- From time to time, I give you Albums to Avoid (horrifically bad offerings from lame artists) and also great albums you should listen to, but I can't ever remember an album that fell into the gray area somewhere in between that I’ve mentioned here. That trend ends now, because the first new studio album in 16 years by the B-52s isn’t one that I’m really pumped about, but I’m not as dead set against it like I am against artists like Mary J. Blige, Fergie, Justin “Weasel on Helium” Timberlake, etc. The B-52s have their place in music as the quirky, fun, oddball, kitschy pop rockers responsible for hits like Love Shack and Roam. You don’t take them seriously as you do with artists like the Beatles, U2, the Clash, Ramones, etc., but you can’t totally disregard them either. So instead of giving a big thumbs up or thumbs down to Funplex, the group’s new album, I’ll just let you know that at midnight today, the cable TV network Logo will air a video for the album’s first single, the title track, on its NewNowNext Music show. B-52s members Fred Schneider and Kate Pierson will host the telecast and look to send their new project off with a bang. If their music is something you like, tune in and see what you think of their newest material. If not, no big loss…..
- I believe we may have found our first home built on a foundation of crap. Mary J. Blige (hey, didn’t I just rip her music a few sentences ago?), an R&B crooner whose ear-assaulting musical stylings have terrorized listeners for years, has used proceeds from her sales of E.B.M. (excruciatingly bad music) to purchase an 18,250-square-foot, $12.3 million mansion in a posh New Jersey neighborhood where luminaries such as Wyclef Jean, Ja Rule, Vince Carter and Danny Aiello live. On the backs of the poor, musically stupid souls who have bought her albums and attended her concerts, Blige will move into a home that includes amenities such as: a 14-seat movie theater, a fitness center, hardwood basketball court, gourmet kitchen, wine tasting room and eight bedrooms.” Amazingly, the home started out with a price tag of $17 million, then dropped to $13.9 million before Blige picked it up at $12.3 million. Just think what she would be able to afford if she actually made good music…..
- The top export for the United States just might be political corruption after all. We’re already famous for having morally bankrupt leaders such as Eliot Spitzer and Kwame Kilpatrick, not to mention past notables like Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton and our current leader W., men who think nothing of lying and distorting the truth to serve their own ends and trampling all over the Constitution if it helps them out. So it really should come as no surprise that a U.S. territory like Puerto Rico has its own leaders incorporating some of those same shady tactics into their own governing style. Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vila was charged Thursday with 19 criminal counts in a campaign finance probe, including but not limited to conspiracy to violate U.S. federal campaign laws and giving false testimony to the FBI. False testimony to the feds? Who does this guy think he is, a ‘roid-using, hall-of-fame MLB player (allegedly)? Included in the indictment were 12 other members of Vila’s Popular Democratic Party, all following a two-year sting operation and investigation. What makes this all the more interesting is that Vila is a superdelegate for the Democratic Party who has pledged his support for Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convention later this year. Oops. Not really the kind of support you want, eh Barack? Adding a healthy dose of irony to the whole sitch is the fact that Vila was elected Puerto Rico’s governor in 2004 largely on the strength of an anti-corruption campaign. Apparently Anibal Acevedo Vila translates into English as “Eliot Spitzer.” Both ride law-abiding, anti-(insert criminal activity name here) campaigns into office, then are hit with criminal charges for those very crimes they crusaded against while in office. One solicits $1,000-per-hour hookers, one runs corrupt campaigns. So where did things go wrong for Vila? Well, prior to his stint as governor, he did serve as the island’s nonvoting delegate to Congress, so I think it’s safe to assume that the corrupting power of being around all of those lying, deceiving, law-breaking crooks on the Hill was what led him astray. Welcome to the political big time, Puerto Rico, a corrupt leader indicted while in office, you’re one of the big boys now.
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