- Maybe you couldn’t get enough of Al Gore’s captivating environmental documentary An Inconvenient Truth. Perhaps a couple hours of real-life footage about how we’re steadily ruining the environment and polluting the very world we count on to sustain is wasn’t enough for you. If so, do I have some exciting news! Italian composer Giorgio Battistelli was so inspired by the film that he’s turning it into an opera based on both the book that inspired the movie and the movie itself. Battistelli began work on the opera a year ago and the Milan opera house La Scala plans to present it during the 2011 season (so much for immediacy) as it celebrates the 150th anniversary Italy’s unification in 1861. Instead of following suit with the film and using a narrator to tell the story, the opera will use characters to tell the tale. Other than that, it’s expected to be a close replica of its source material. A character modeled on Gore will also be in the opera, although it could be a bit like the debate over the Elvis stamp a few years ago. Do you go with the slimmer, shaven Gore of his vice presidential days or with the rotund, bearded Gore of present day life? I say the old Gore, because America is already getting too much of a stigma as a nation of fat asses, so let’s represent Gore in his thinner days if you don’t mind….
- If I were coming up with a concert lineup that would appropriately honor the legacy of Nelson Mandela and all he stands for, I could not come up with a more appropriate performer than Amy Winehouse. After all, what honors a dignified humanitarian who has spent years in jail fighting the injustice of apartheid in South Africa quite like a coked-up, vodka-snorting lush like Winehouse? What is Winehouse if not dignified, classy and humanitarian? Assuming that by dignified, classy and a humanitarian you mean that she’s a drug addict, an alcoholic and spends so much time in rehab that they’re going to erect a statue of her there soon because she’ll more or less have paid enough to finance the rehab center for decades. The concert will take place July 27 at London’s Hyde Park and Winehouse will be far from the only performer, but her inclusion is still pretty humorous. Simple Minds, Queen, Leona Lewis and the Soweto Gospel choir will also perform and raise money for Mandela’s AIDS charity, a noble cause to be sure. Notable figures such as former President Bubba Clinton and Oprah Winfrey will also attend in an obvious and much-deserved show of respect for a great man in Mandela. Hopefully Amy Winehouse limits herself to two lines of coke before taking the stage, otherwise things could turn ugly…..actually, they will turn ugly the second she starts the indecipherable mumbling and whining that she calls singing, but at least if she’s clean and sober that will mitigate the damage.
- Much respect to the Movement for Democratic Change, Zimbabwe’s main opposition group in seeking to rid dictatorial President Bob Mugabe from office. The MDC has basically decided to act as if it’s the country’s ruling party, which in truth it is since its candidate won the presidential election whose results Mugabe refused to accept and which must now be followed by a runoff election because of Mugabe’s campaign of terror to destroy the results of that first election. As a direct show of defiance to Mugabe, the MDC convened what it called a session of parliament and declared itself Zimbabwe’s new ruling party. The session also contained a self-proclaimed “state of the nation” address by opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai promised Zimbabweans that they are about to witness a “new and different era of governance. What, you mean one where the ruling party accepts the results of elections that its citizens vote in and doesn’t beat and even murder those who oppose it? Neat-O. Besides, my policy has always been to disregard and ignore governments I don’t feel are legitimate and capable, which would explain why I’ve refused to recognize W. as our nation’s president for the last seven-plus years. Best of success to you in this new endeavor, Movement for Democratic Change, the world is rooting for you.
- Surreal and different, those would be the first two words to come to mind when watching the debut of mixed martial arts on network TV Saturday night on CBS. With the overly excitable Gus Johnson on the mic, CBS became the first major network to embrace MMA with its broadcast of EliteXC fighting. The main event featured YouTube sensation and MMA up-and-comer Kimbo Slice, a man who has gone from paying kids at local parks $100 to get tackled by him on film and brawling with dudes in back yards for money to MMA’s most visible face. Kimbo scored a victory over James Thompson by a third-round TKO, and overall it was a successful night for MMA in terms of putting its product onto a mainstream stage with five great matches that included one women’s MMA bout. The action was good - physical, even brutal at times - and for those of us who weren’t already heavily into MMA in all of its forms and governing bodies, it was a great way to sample the sport and see what it’s all about. If you’re squeamish or not big into guys kicking the crap out of each other, you’re probably never going to be a big MMA fan. But if you go into it with an open mind and take it at face value, you could end up like me, enjoying the show and looking forward to watching future MMA events on broadcast TV.
- Money may not be able to buy you love, but in some courtrooms it can clearly but you a more palatable dispensation of justice. This is true in every state, but especially in Louisiana, where two judges were convicted Saturday of taking bribes to set low bonds or remove court holds on defendants. A federal jury found District Judge Michael Walker and Caddo Parish Juvenile Court Judge Vernon Claville guilty on one count each of racketeering. The charge carries up to 20 years in prison and a possible $250,000 fine. A small price to pay if you’re looking to supplement your meager judicial salary with bribes from those appearing before your bench, I say. After all, who can be bothered with dispensing justice in a fair and honest manner when there’s an extra buck to be made on the side? Also, how hilarious is it that one of these corrupt judges served in the juvenile court system? Nothing like kids who have gone down the wrong path and are in need of correction and rehabilitation before they become lifetime criminals going into juvenile court and being able to procure preferential treatment if they and their lawyer are willing to slide the judge a few bucks under the table. I bet that was just the corrective action those kids needed to get their lives back on track. Either that or you just reinforced the same beliefs and values that put them into the juvenile system in the first place and fast-tracked them to a life filled with stints in prison, one or the other…..
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