- I’ll say this for former NFL and Miami Hurricanes star quarterback Bernie Kosar: he doesn’t evade creditors any better than he evaded pass-rushing defensive ends. On the field, Kosar was a virtual statue, a tall, gangly guy who had a decent arm but zero mobility in the pocket. He retired from the NFL in 1996 and seemed to be one of those former players with his head on straight post-football. He went into business and among other things, became the owner of the Cleveland Gladiators of the Arena Football League. He was also a broadcaster for Browns games on television and was a familiar face on the Cleveland sports scene. However, it’s now clear that Bernie the businessman isn’t exactly the second coming of Bill Gates. Kosar has filed for bankruptcy protection in Miami, which doesn’t mean he’s broke but rather that his ginormous debts outweigh his slightly-less-ginormous assets. Kosar's Chapter 11 filing Friday lists assets between $1 million and $10 million and liabilities of between $10 million and $50 million. His creditors are a diverse and interesting group, ranging from his ex-wife Babette ($3 million and $725,000 from a personal loan) to a bank he owes more than $9 million for bad real estate deals. All of this was set up by a decidedly bad period in 2007-08 in which Kosar in which he got divorced and then saw his steakhouse go out of business. On top of that, the Arena League is taking a season off because of its own financial struggles, leaving Kosar with even more financial dead weight around his neck. Oh, and I love the fact that someone who has as much as $10 million in assets can be considered bankrupt, given the fact that $10 million is more than most of us will ever earn in our life……..
- The history of the alt rock scene lost a legendary venue Friday morning when flames gutted the Georgia Theatre in Athens, Georgia. The 19th-century building was a key venue in an alternative rock music scene where acts like the B-52s, R.E.M. and the Indigo Girls got their start. The theater is located in downtown Athens near the University of Georgia campus, or at least it was before it basically burned to the ground. The building suffered heavy damage from the fire, which was discovered at 7 a.m. According to Athens-Clarke County government spokeswoman Sandy Turner, the building took a huge hit from the blaze. “The facade is still there, but it's very bad," she said. The Georgia Theatre (gotta love venues that adopt the “re” ending to the word theater/theatre as opposed to the “er” ending, which is totally lame) began as a movie theater before then-University of Georgia student Sheffy McArthur and two friends converted the building into a music venue in 1978. “The B-52s paid us to play there, imagine that," McArthur said. But the first show in the remodeled theatre was played by Sea Level, a blues-jazz-rock group that grew from the remnants of the Allman Brothers Band, in January 1978. McArthur and his friends ran the theatre until 2004, when they sold it to Wilmont Greene. By that time, it has become the hub of Atlanta’s alternative scene. Greene made some serious renovations to the 600-seat theater, but the overall atmosphere remained the same. During its early years, the venue helped serve as a launching point for the career of Michael Stipe and R.E.M., which formed in Athens in 1980 and has been a fixture on the alternative scene ever since. The band held album release parties at the Georgia Theatre and played multiple benefit shows there. In fact, R.E.M., is now based in a building just down the street. "All of us here certainly wish Wilmont Greene and his staff the best of luck and Godspeed in their efforts to rebuild the Athens landmark," an R.E.M. statement said. I second those sentiments and hope to see the venue open and running again as soon as possible, helping the next wave of alternative acts get their start……..
- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! Things are getting freaking ugly in Iran, and by ugly I mean beautiful. Beautiful because The Revolution is often bloody, brutal and violent, at least when serious change comes to a nation. No change worth making is ever quick, clean or easy. So first and foremost, I salute the tens of thousands of people who have risked their lives and taken to the streets of Tehran to defy the orders of their government and make their voices heard. Islamic Revolution leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini may have forcefully told Iranians that they were not to riot, march or demonstrate against what they believe to be the fraudulent re-election of President/Dictator Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but opposition groups blew right by his ultimatum and have kept on rioting. Thousands of protesters told Iran's highest authority to suck it on Saturday by marching on waiting security forces that bused out baton charges, tear gas and water cannons to kick things up a notch. With the government using its iron fist to keep most images of the unrest from getting out, the pictures of the proceedings have come mainly from intrepid protestors who have used cell phone cameras and small, concealed digital cameras and gotten a shot or two in without having the police spot them. Because of the government ban on reporting about what’s actually going on, there are conflicting reports about what went down Saturday. Some bloggers claimed that a suicide bombing had led to two fatalities, while others reported an explosion but no deaths. I don’t know exactly what transpired, but what I do know is that protestors bravely defied The Man, stood tall against lines of black-clad police three deep and fought back. The Iranian government should probably be clueing into the fact that they cannot silence these people and that their sham of an election to keep their dictator in power is viewed as illegitimate and unacceptable by everyone but them. Opposition leader and presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi is leading this charge and he is inspiring his followers to riot, which makes him a great leader in my book. Better still, he completely ignored the ultimatum issued b Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who sternly commanded that Mousavi and others call off demonstrations or risk being held responsible for "bloodshed, violence and rioting.” Acting as a loyal stooge for The Man, police commander Gen. Esmaeil Ahmadi Moghadam said more than a week of unrest and marches had become "exhausting, bothersome and intolerable” and threatened a more "serious confrontation" if protesters returned. Sorry that revolution and the demand for a fair election are “bothersome” for you, E. My man, bothersome is having a tiny bit of milk in the fridge but not enough for your cereal or to drink. That’s bothersome, but the riots and marches you are so opposed to are better described as awesome………
- Sitting around wolfing down your favorite flavor of Nestle Toll House cookie dough product as you read this? If so, I’m going to stop for a minute so you can put the cookie dough down, get some Ipacac and flush out the contents of your digestive system because Nestle has voluntarily recalled its refrigerated Toll House cookie dough products and warned consumers not to eat raw Toll House cookie dough due to fears about possible E. coli contamination. The E. coli scare has now reached more than two dozen states and although health officials are not 100 percent certain that Toll House cookie dough is to blame, Nestle is looking to get out ahead of this because many of the people sick ate the raw cookie dough. If there is one common denominator and more than 60 people have fallen ill so far in 28 states, I’d say that’s a smart move. “While the E. coli strain implicated in this investigation has not been detected in our product, the health and safety of our consumers is paramount so we are initiating this voluntary recall," Nestle said in a statement. “Consumers who have purchased these products should not consume them. Instead, we are asking that consumers return these products to their local grocer for a full refund.” Never mind the warning on all Nestle packaging that advises people not eat raw cookie dough; Nestle is smart enough to know that a lot of FAT, sweet-toothed losers out there will do it anyhow. In warning people to cease and desist eating their possibly toxic cookie dough, Nestle did stressed that its other products are OK to eat -- including its pre-baked cookies, chocolate chips, cocoa and ice cream made by Dreyer's and Edy's that contain cookie dough. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration also jumped on board with the recall, releasing a statement advising consumers to deposit any of the affected products directly into the trash. “Cooking the dough is not recommended because consumers might get the bacteria on their hands and on other cooking surfaces,” the FDA statement said. Done and done……..
- There are good points and bad points to “The Proposal,” the new chick flick, er, romantic comedy starring Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds. The positives…..umm, it doesn’t totally suck. However, it’s extremely unoriginal, at times exceptionally bland and overall not worth the price of admission. Bullock is hard-working, hard-driving New York book editor Margaret, who is demanding and seemingly loathed by everyone in her life. Reynolds is Andrew, her executive assistant who takes all of her crap and smiles because he sees it as a sort of “welcome to the publishing world” experience. Yes, it’s the retread story of a guy and a girl who seem to hate each other, yet gradually the ice melts and they realize that they actually love one another. We’ve seen this story for decades on television, in movies and even on Broadway. So how do these two love-blind idiots finally come together? What is their magical epiphany? It’s none other than the tried-and-true visa problems plot twist. See, Margaret is Canadian and with her visa expired, she faces deportation and makes the snap decision to marry Andrew in a green-card wedding. Of course, Andrew has a choice: accept the “marriage” proposal or lose his job. Never mind the fact that he could simply sue for sexual harassment, because logic has no place in these things. So he accepts and they pose as a couple, with another predictable plot development coming when they go to visit his family in Alaska. I think this was supposed to be the funny part of the movie, but it was so predictable that I forgot to laugh. Bullock and Reynolds both do a decent job in their roles, but the plot is so blasé that they can't overcome it. The producers attempt to pump up the comedy with eccentric characters from Andrew’s family, including Oscar Nunez from "The Office” and Betty White, but to no avail. The bottom line on this one is that if your girlfriend, fiancée, wife, etc. drags you to see this movie, you won't want to slam your head in the car door immediately after the opening scene. Of course, you’ll still be bored to death for the better part of two hours, but it could be worse…….
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