- Being a magician’s assistant can be a dangerous gig, what with the potential to be sawed in half or made to disappear into thin air at any moment. Either that or the magician you work for could snap your arm in a trick gone wrong and send you to the hospital with a broken limb. Such is the case for an unidentified employee David Copperfield who was hospitalized Wednesday with a broken arm after one of the illusionist's tricks went awry on stage. The employee was taking part in the "fan illusion" trick and got his arm caught in the fan - uh oh. When the illusion works properly, Copperfield appears to walk through the fan and disappear as he turns to smoke. This time, he turned his assistant into a man with a full-arm cast and a ride to the hospital in an ambulance. The accident occurred during a show called An Intimate Evening of Grand Illusion and took place in Las Vegas at MGM Grand's Hollywood Theatre. After the mishap, the show was stopped even though the crowd wasn’t actually able to see what happened and likely had no idea about what was going on. "This is a trick David has done over 3,000 times," executive producer Chris Kenner says. "This was a freak accident." A freak accident, maybe. A good trick, no. Copperfield’s greatest trick ever remains using Claudia Schiffer to make all of those questions about his alleged homosexuality disappear a few years back. Dating her convinced people he was straight, but that wasn’t enough to keep him from becoming a Las Vegas lounge act and getting passed by by other, younger magicians like that freak David Blaine and his glass boxes. Kenner also promised that Copperfield will continue to perform the fan illusion in his shows, although he did not say whether he will be breaking anyone else’s arm in the process. However, the show must go on and as such, none of Copperfield's shows at MGM Grand have been postponed. So if you’re looking to see a past-his-prime, arm-breaking magician on your next trip to Vegas, you know where to go……
- This isn’t going to help the ongoing crisis in your country, Greek police, it’s hurting the situation, man. Young anarchists and all other manner of social dissidents around the country were already pissed off and rioting around the clock because you wrongfully shot and killed one teenager. The fact that you have now shot a second teenager isn’t what I like to call a calming influence on the situation. No, it’s more likely to inspire thousands of youths to violently demonstrate in central Athens and target places the French Institute, forcing police to scramble to the scene to do battle. This second shooting took place in an Athens suburb earlier this week, with a 17-year-old high school student shot under bizarre circumstances. The boy, who was hit in the hand by an unknown assailant as he was talking to a group of schoolmates in the western suburb of Peristeri, was hit with a shot from a .38-caliber handgun. Police are adamant that none of their men were the shooter in this case, as they claim no officers were patrolling the region at the time of the incident. However, with all of Greece already in an uproar after the fatal police shooting of a 15-year-old boy December 6, no one much cares who was responsible for the second shooting; they’re just jacked up to have another reason to riot - not that they needed one. The response to the second shooting was led by students who rallied Friday, with one of the rallies was planned for central Athens and the other in the suburb where the student was shot. Other activities on the day’s riot and protest calendar included a gathering of artists in central Athens to stage a protest concert in response to the initial shooting of 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos. Additionally, student unions are gathering to across the country to determine their course of rioting, er, action for the next few weeks. The scope of their impact is amazing, as at least 800 high schools and 200 universities have been shut down because thousands of youths have seized the grounds and campuses in protest. Literally, an entire country is shutting down, chunk by chunk, because anti-establishment individuals are making an effort to speak out and put some muscle behind their message. Keep up the protests, keep clashing with police, having protest concerts, seizing property, burning and looting and making life miserable for those in charge, angry Greek students and anarchists, you are making a mark in a big way…..
- I always laugh when I see people in a traditionally warm-weather climate experience snow falling in their area. Watching the reaction of people, many of whom moved to that area of the country specifically to avoid wintry weather, is priceless. Those people are pissed off, while lifetime residents of places like Florida, Southern California, etc. are either entranced by the snow or so badly rattled by its presence that they can’t even function normally. Also, there is the chance to see images like snow on the ground and swirling through the air around the legendary "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" in Sin City this week. Palm trees were blanketed with snow as the most severe winter storm to hit Las Vegas in three decades rolled through town. Tourists and locals braved the cold to snap pictures, with business people who had been planning to hop day flights between Las Vegas and California forced back to hotels in the scramble to find an available room. Some tools were rushing outside and sticking out their tongues to catch the snowflakes, but everyone’s enthusiasm for their dose of winter dampened when they realized that they had to try to drive home in it. Right after their first skid or slip on an icy road, I’m guessing every last one of these people were cursing the low-pressure system that brought on the storm, which was the eighth worst ever recorded in Las Vegas. By the time it was over the Strip got close to 2 inches, and the outskirts of town received 6 inches, the first measurable snow accumulation since a 2-inch snowfall in 2004. Oh, and I hope you enjoyed another perk of winter weather, Las Vegas: power loss. Yes, the snow forced 8,000 customers to lose power Wednesday, with many stuck in the dark overnight until power was restored Thursday morning. People preparing for a weekend in California or Vegas will also be affected by the storm, as parts of Interstate 15, which links the two states, have been closed because of huge snow drifts. Oh, and seeing the rich, arrogant a-holes in Malibu and Palmdale, Calif. get hit with 5-6 inches of snow was funny as well. Of course, that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t still rather be living in one of those places……
- Nothing like throwing some of your former college teammates under the bus for drug use and then refusing to identify those teammates. Former Indiana University standout Eric Gordon did just that in an interview this week, saying he believes that drug use caused a rift on last season's team. Gordon, who now plays for the Los Angeles Clippers, played only one season at IU, but clearly it was a memorable one. He claims that some players on the team used drugs and that then-coach and always-scumbag Kelvin Sampson tried to stop the drug use, but Sampson "was just so focused on basketball and winning and everything." While he wouldn’t finger the players who were potheads, snorting blow, etc., Gordon did say that friend D.J. White and two others still on the team were among those who did not. "It was the guys that were doing drugs that were separate," Gordon explained. Additionally Gordon said he spent time off campus with a family friend in Bloomington because of the atmosphere surrounding some players. "Sometimes it felt like it wasn't even a real basketball team because of all the turmoil that went on," Gordon said. Backing up Gordon’s claims is former Indiana guard Adam Ahlfeld, who confirmed that players were aware of the drug problem. "I wasn't really with those abusing drugs, so I can't say what was really going on," Ahlfeld told the newspaper. "I wasn't involved in any of those things." Hang on…..if you knew they were abusing drugs, then you did know what was going on. Maybe you didn’t know the exact method they used to get the drugs into their system - shoot, snort, ingest - but you knew it was going on. And how about Sampson? Dude is breaking NCAA rules left and right, lying and deceiving, and he can’t find time to address a ginormous issue like players using drugs when everyone in and around the program seems to know about it? What the hell do you mean he tried to stop it but couldn’t? Here’s how you stop it: you use drugs, you are off this team. That stops the problem right then and there. But I guess when you start the season 17-1, as Indiana did last season, a lot of problems tend to go overlooked. However, a team full of drug users led by a lying, cheating, no-soul-having coach was surprisingly unable to sustain their momentum and the season came off the tracks as the Hoosiers lost their first game of the Big Ten tournament and were eliminated in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Because of a recruiting scandal centering on Sampson, the school bought out his contract following the season and new head coach Tom Crean gets to come in and pick up the pieces, good times……
- Sometimes it takes a kid to have the courage and conviction to do something that makes people think. Jake Lewis, a 13-year-old Jewish boy from Dallas, is one such kid and last spring when he was sitting down with his parents and beginning to plan his Bar Mitzvah, Jake decided that for his special day, he also wanted to do something to honor his heritage, specifically the 6 million Jews horrifically killed by Adolf Hitler and the Nazis in the Holocaust. For inspiration, he turned to things he remembered since being assigned to read the book "Night" in the sixth grade and learning of the Nazi atrocities against the Jews. He then found out about an 18th century Torah at the Dallas Holocaust Museum and thought that the museum would be a great place to hold his Bar Mitzvah. The Torah had been confiscated by the Nazis during World War II, but was recovered and brought to the U.S. with the help of an Allen (Tex.) man. Jake’s celebration will do more than bring attention to the museum. As part of his Bar Mitzvah, his mitzvah, or good deed will be to collect a penny for each of the 1.5 million children killed in the Holocaust. That would raise $15,000, with the funds raised to go to the museum. When asked about his unique choice for a Bar Mitzvah location, Jake explained, "I want everyone to know about the Holocaust and make sure it doesn't happen again.” Several Holocaust survivors in the Dallas area have heard about the event and plan to attend, so it should be a great day and a meaningful event for all involved……
No comments:
Post a Comment