- Nothing says ghetto like getting married in prison. Remy Ma, whose real name is Remy Smith, isn’t going to let the fact that she’s incarcerated stand in the way of her impending nuptials. As she awaits sentencing for shooting a friend (yes, she shot her own friend) she suspected of stealing $3,000 from her, Smith will wed fellow rapper Papoose in a ceremony at New York’s famed Rikers Island jail on April 23. Way to be Remy, marrying a guy named after a baby-carrying apparatus. What the frak kind of rap name is Papoose anyhow? That’s supposed to be hardcore gangsta? But I digress. Smith was convicted last month of assault, weapon possession and coercion after busting a cap into a friend she had accused of ripping her off. Now, she’s being held without bail at Rikers Island as she awaits sentencing. The funny part of this is that about 200 weddings are performed at the jail annually, with Rikers Island offering chaplains and chapels for the ceremonies. Classing things up a bit for Remy Ma and Papoose will be strict guidelines allowing only two guests at their special ceremony and forbidding the bride and groom from exchanging wedding rings with protruding gems. Great, because who doesn’t like to have to select their wedding ring with the stipulation that it not have protruding gems so it can’t be used as a weapon in a possible jailhouse brawl. Classy event, Remy, classy event….
- R.E.M. have been around so long that it’s all too easy to forget that they were one of the very first bands to jump-start the college band genre. Michael Stipe’s voice has been a distinctive one in rock for a long time, but not everyone knows the band’s great history. If you’re one of those people, I’d definitely encourage you to listen to some of the group’s earlier efforts before delving into their newest one, the aptly titled Accelerate. In fact, this album not only recaptures the old spirit of R.E.M. before their critically panned albums of the late ‘90s, it adds an extra edge and fiery energy that I can't remember hearing on any previous effort from the group. From the album’s first track, Living Well is the Best Revenge, the guitars are loud, raw and angry. Stipe and his bandmates manage to consistently mix in a punk rock vibe that they’ve only shown flashes of in the past. Stipe, Peter Buck and Mike Mills make that punk sound most evident on songs like Horse to Water and I’m Gonna DJ, but unlike a lot of punk rockers out there, they handle their instruments extremely well. Stipe has explained that his motivation for the album was the same as the motivation for many of my own rants, the interminable war in Iraq and the all-around incompetence of the W. administration. However, the lyrics aren’t all anti-war and vitriol, so don’t think that this is an overly political album. One of the absolute best lines on the entire album comes from the song Houston, which was inspired by the debacle that was our government’s response to Hurricane Katrina and its devastation on the Gulf Coast region. “If the storm doesn’t kill me, the government will,” Stipe pointedly sings. When you couple that very agreeable anti-W. sentiment with an album full of great music, Accelerate is a definite winner of an album and follows up on strong releases the previous two weeks from the Raconteurs and Black Keys to make for a strong spring of new music.
- The Major League Baseball season is just over a week old, but it’s safe to say that so far, the much-hyped Detroit Tigers are bombing out big time. The big trade of the MLB offseason brought slugging third baseman Miguel Cabrera and left-handed hurler Dontrelle Willis to the Motor City and the Tigers also brought in shortstop Edgar Renteria via trade to further bolster what was project to be baseball’s best offense. We’re now seven games into the season and although Mark Twain once said that there are lies, there are damn lies and then there are statistics, I’m going to made a rough guesstimate and say that the Tigers do not actually have the best offense in baseball. Averaging 2.1 runs per game and having four home runs, 24th in MLB, would not qualify as the best. Having your top slugger, Gary Sheffield, out with a torn finger tendon doesn’t help, nor does having Cabrera miss games due to hamstring troubles. On top of that, the one trouble spot everyone predicted for the Tigers was their bullpen and the bully has been every bit as bad as expected and then some. Detroit relievers have posted a sparkling 0-3 record, 4.62 ERA and have given away several games already even after the starting pitcher exited the game having turned in a solid effort. One week isn’t enough to draw definitive conclusions about the season as a whole and how it will play out, but if the Tigers don’t start playing better soon, the remainder of their season may be ruled irrelevant because they will have dug such a large hole that their hopes for a successful campaign will be dead.
- These are shaping up to be the best Olympics ever. After all, what says international event promoting unity, sportsmanship, cooperation and triumph of the human spirit quite like the stench of brutal oppression of basic human right and freedoms? Top that off with a worldwide outcry against the host nation and you’ve got a mighty delicious sports and cultural stew, my friend. That stew was at full simmer Sunday as police repeatedly scuffled with protesters as Olympians and celebrities carried the Olympic torch through snowy London. Pro-Tibet demonstrators actually tried to board a relay bus after five-time Olympic gold medalist rower Steve Redgrave launched the procession at Wembley Stadium -- the first of a number of clashes with police along the torch's 31-mile journey. The procession continued to be fraught with conflict in west London, where one protester tried to grab the torch out of the hands of a children's television presenter, forcing police to briefly stop the procession as officers detained the man. But it didn’t end there, oh no. Shortly after that incident, another demonstrator tried to snuff out the flame with what appeared to be a fire extinguisher. Ah, the prestige and dignity of the Olympics, protestors discharging fire extinguishers to put out the Olympic flame. Other less-resourceful demonstrators in the crowd threw themselves at torchbearers running past in official Beijing Olympics tracksuits. The unrest was so severe that Chinese Ambassador Fu Ying, who had been expected to carry the Olympic torch, was pulled from the mix because of a massive swell of demonstrators in the area. She was reassigned to a different part of the torch’s London trip, carrying the flame in the heart of London's Chinatown and managing to jog unhindered before handing over the torch to the next participant in the relay. Also in the protest spirit were anti-China protestors in London's historic Bloomsbury area, who were separated from some pro-Chinese supporters. Predictably, these dissidents weren’t happy with The Man trying to hold them down. “As an English person, I have a right to stand where I want to on the street,” pro-Tibet demonstrator Roger Moulland, 54, from Brighton, said as he was moved away by police. Ditto for hundreds of protesters along the route who chanted slogans including “Free Tibet!” “Stop killing in Tibet!” and “China, talk to Dalai Lama.” Even the torchbearers took notice of the zoo going on around them. “There was definitely a bit of an edge,” British tennis player Tim Henman, one of the torchbearers, admitted. So far, the fallout from the day includes upwards of 30 arrests according Metropolitan Police said. Olympic fever, catch it world!
- For one weekend at least, the top of the box office earnings list looks a lot like the preceding weekend. Remaining at the top of the heap is 21, the gambling-centric film based on Ben Mesrick’s best-selling novel. The movie’s take for it second weekend was a modest $15.1 million, edging out George Clooney’s new old-timey football flick Leatherheads, which raked in $13.5 million to finish second. The third-place finisher for the weekend was the fantasy kid’s movie Nim’s Island, starring Jodie Foster and Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine), with a take of $13.3 million. The animated flick Horton Hears a Who capped a good weekend for the family friendly movie by placing fourth, followed by a decidedly non-family friendly movie, The Ruins. The ironic thing is that while none of these movies may jump out at you as a major blockbuster or Oscar contender, this is a solid top five and with the possible exception of Nim’s Island if you’re over the age of 12, all of them are flicks you’d probably enjoy watching. So a good weekend for movies, which is truly a rare feat these days.
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