- For all the knuckleheaded things he’s done, things like this are the reason why I’m still on board with Cincinnati Bengals receiver Chad Ochocinco. With the Bengals’ home game on Sunday against the Houston Texans in danger of being blacked out locally because the game was not a sellout (as the lame-tastic NFL rules mandate), Ochocinco called on Motorola, with whom the charismatic receiver has a partnership, and the duo bought 1,200 tickets and will give them away Saturday at Paul Brown Stadium. No word on how the tickets will be distributed, but Ochocinco will be there to help. This is just a nice thing to do, especially since most fans don’t buy tickets for games because they simply can’t afford to do so. Money is beyond tight for the majority of Americans right now and doling out more than a hundred bucks per person for tickets, parking, concessions, etc. in order to attend a game is just not feasible. If you have a family of three or four, that proposition becomes even tougher to swing and even if they can’t see their team play on TV because the game is blacked out, there is no way for fans to swing the cash to attend, as much as they would like to. Thanks to Ochocinco and Motorola, the Bengals were able to sell enough tickets for the game to keep alive its streak of 46 straight games being shown on local television. Locals will now be able to watch their first-place Bengals, winners of won four in a row and in sole possession of first place in the AFC North, play what should be a pretty exciting game against the high-scoring Texans. Here’s hoping that those 1,200 tickets find their way into the hands of people who are having a tough run in life and could least afford to buy the ducats on their own. Getting free seats to an NFL game could make the day – or even year – for a down-and-out family who can’t afford to do much more than scrape by and pay the bills. Props to Ochocinco for stepping up to lead the charge on this one. I think I’ll be rooting for the Bengals on Sunday…………
- Reason to love local government #4,664: At what should be a normal, run-of-the-mill city council meeting, you could see two old dudes throw haymakers at one another after a council vote. Where else would this take place but our nation’s true haven for blue hairs who have retired and have nothing better to do with their lives now than hit up flea markets and gear up for the early bird special at the Sizzler? Journey with me to St. Petersburg, Fla., where Thursday’s city council meeting saw some of the best action any council meeting has seen in years. After council members voted to cede the public sidewalk fronting BayWalk to its owners, it was on like freaking Donkey Kong. The 5-3 vote in favor of the measure immediately divided the audience, which broke out into two distinct groups: those happily cheering the result and those angrily denouncing it. The proposal’s most vocal critic, Rev. Bruce Wright, spent weeks opposing the proposal and when it passed over his strenuous objects, he was pissed. "You are so full of (expletive) it is ridiculous," Wright bellowed at the council. Frederick Dudley, who is the older brother of council member Bill Dudley, had his brother’s back. "Why don't you move?" he challenged Wright. After that, Dudley, 76, and Ronald Deaton, 61, a free speech activist, turned their rage on one another and they too traded verbal salvos. Dudley had heard all he could take and then bum-rushed Deaton, with both men grabbing their opponent by the neck and falling to the ground in a flurry of punches. Police pulled the two mean apart and both were eventually escorted from City Hall, arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. I have one word for everyone involved in this melee: awesome. If more council meetings were going to end WWE-style, I feel safe in saying that myself and most citizens would be eager to attend. Two old guys coming to blows and getting arrested is enough to liven up any boring council meeting, regardless of what’s on the agenda. To be fair, you could have seen this one coming in some sense. The debate over of the sidewalk issue has been brewing for weeks and individuals on both sides of the debate view the measure as a turning point in St. Petersburg's future. The arguments boiled down to the fact that the sidewalk has become a collecting point for what some in the community deem undesirables - loitering teenagers, panhandlers and demonstrators – and those proponents of turning the sidewalk into private property argued that the business located in the area would not return to economic viability as long as the miscreants were allowed to linger. Critics argued the measure established a dangerous precedent against free speech that would do little to revive the area and claimed it is failing because of competition, mismanagement, a faulty retail mix and the recession. In the end, the council sided with BayWalk's owners and of course, the money. Those owners have promised $6 million in improvements into the center if given the sidewalk, so now we’ll have to see if they follow through on their promise. Even if they do, it’s hard to foresee a revival of the BayWalk complex, given that its retail space is about 70 percent vacant. Either way, let’s not lose sight of what’s truly important here: the brawl. Regardless of who wins or loses in a debate, the important thing is always whether or not two old dudes were willing to throw down and get arrested to make their point………..
- I salute Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of in the Zimbabwean opposition Movement for Democratic Change, for voewing to boycott what Tsvangirai and his fellow MDC members view as the illegitimate government of supposedly elected-by-the-people leader Bob Mugabe – or at least I would if the MDC were actually boycotting said government. "This is a constitutional crisis," said Tsvangirai as he railed against President Robert Mugabe's party. "ZanuPF [Mugabe's party] cannot run government alone constitutionally and legally." Tsvangirai said his party will not attend cabinet meetings and in his capacity as prime minister, he has also boycotted his meetings with Mugabe which occur every Monday. All of that is great, but the problem is that the MDC party is not completely pulling out of the government. That’s what a true boycott means, but Tsvangirai doesn’t seem to embrace that concept. In explaining why his party is staging a non-boycott boycott of the current regime, Tsvangirai was vague and slightly cryptic. "Why have we decided not to pull out? Because the people of Zimbabwe want real change and that is our obligation. If that time to pull out comes, it will be that time, not now," he said. All of this takes places against the backdrop of an ongoing saga involving Roy Bennett, another MDC leader who was released on bail Friday after sent back to jail earlier in the week to await trial on charges of possessing weapons for sabotage, banditry and terrorism. The MDC views the case as little more than continued persecution of their party and thus their threat to boycott the so-called unity government. The relationship between the Movement for Democratic Change and the ZanuPF party has been tenuous at best since the power-sharing deal, which had been brokered by the regional Southern African Development Community after the rigged election Mugabe continues to insist he won. Bennett has been a pawn in this game since his arrest on February 13 -- just before he was to be sworn in as deputy agriculture minister in the new power-sharing government. Tsvangirai continues to rail against Bennett’s continued harassment even though he’s not actually willing to go to the extreme to fight back. "The delay which is taking place for his swearing in is deliberate to frustrate him, to frustrate our constituency, to send the message -- look we can do this we can do this unilaterally and that is what we are trying to oppose," Tsvangirai declared. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let me know when you’re actually ready to stage a real boycott, M., and then we’ll talk…………
- Who says that famous people don’t get preferential treatment in the legal system? From what I can tell, Lindsay Lohan is getting second, third, fourth and fifth chances to actually make good on the terms of her probation for a 2007 drunk driving conviction despite showing that she just doesn’t give a sh*t about the case and isn't making any effort to take the necessary steps to fulfill her obligations. This past week, Beverly Hills judge extended Lohan's probation for a year to give her more time to complete a required alcohol counseling program after repeated failures to attend meetings that are part of her sentence. Judge Marsha Revel ordered Lohan singer to appear in court Friday morning after she was notified by the program that Lohan was missing meetings, but instead of bringing the hammer of justice down on one of America’s favorite lushes/public figures most likely to show up somewhere without underwear on, she simply told Lohan she would go to jail if she hears again that the actress has not been attending meetings. Shawn Chapman Holley, Lohan's lawyer, said she had attended about half of the program sessions required, but her “career” kept her out of the state and the country for many of the meetings. Exactly what career that is, I don’t know. Thankfully Lohan appears to have given up on the joke that is/was her recording career, having not released an album since 2005 (that deserves a cheer from all of us). She wasn’t even good enough to be a poor man’s Britney Spears or Mandy Moore, so no loss there. As for her acting career, Lohan has recently appeared in clunkers like Labor Pains, Georgia Rule and I Know Who Killed Me, all of which took a combined total of four weeks in theaters to reach the stores of your local DVD rental facility, I believe. In other words, she’s not exactly the most in-demand actress right now and taking care of her legal woes shouldn’t be a huge issue. In spite of Lohan’s indifference to those legal isses, Judge Revel handed her yet another chance, albeit a chance accompanied by some hollow threats. Revel said that while she wanted Lohan to have her career, she could not "thumb your nose" at the court. "This is the last time we are going to be talking about re-enrolling and doing what you need to do," Revel told Lohan. The judge als said any travel beyond 21 days that would cause her to miss meetings must be approved by the court. This is merely the latest chapter of a saga stemming from Lohan’s two arrests on charges of driving under the influence in 2007, the first of which came after Lohan lost control of her Mercedes-Benz convertible and struck a curb in Beverly Hills. She did the requisite celebrity rehab stint, which seemed to work well because just two weeks after checking out of a Malibu drug and alcohol rehab facility, she was arrested again in July 2007 after a woman called Santa Monica police saying Lohan was trying to run her down with a car. Stunningly, she was also drunk at that time and was subsequently sentenced to three years' probation after she entered guilty and no-contest pleas to the charges. Back in March, the judge issued a warrant for her arrest when the court did not have updated information showing she was in compliance with the requirements of her three-year probation sentence. The warrant was dropped when her lawyer provided the information. By this point, the average lush/drunk driver/lazy piece of crap would be in jail and out of second chances, but thankfully the wheels of justice turn a little more slowly and less judiciously for the rich and famous, God bless America……….
- Can’t say as I’m all that surprised to see director Spike Jonze and Warner Bros.’ Where the Wild Things Are win the box office earnings race for the weekend. A lot of people I know went to see the movie and while reviews have been mixed and at times extremely opinionated one way or the other, the $32.5 million take for the remake of Maurice Sendak’s classic children’s book was to be expected. It was the best debut even for Jonze, whose two previous films, Being John Malkovich and Adaptation, ended their domestic runs at $22.9 million and $22.5 million, respectively. Of course, with a its reported $80 million budget, Wild Things, has a long way to go before it begins turning a profit. While families and kids were flocking to Wild Things, the childless adults were clearly eager to see Law Abiding Citizen, starring Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler, which snagged second place with $21.3 million. In third place was Paranormal Activity, the horror thriller that raked in up $20.2 million from a mere 760 theaters as it continued to be the box-office phenomenon that no one saw coming. Paramount waged an interesting marketing campaign by asking internet users to “demand” the movie to come to their town. Paranormal’s $26,530 per screen average for the weekend was impressive, but when you factor in the fact that it was produced on a budget of $11,000, it’s downright stunning. With the movie expected to reach 1,800 theaters next weekend, it could easily be the most profitable movie to come out this year by the time all is said and done. Rounding out the top five were the Vince Vaughn comedy Couples Retreat (fourth with $17.9 million) and the Penn Badgley-starring The Stepfather, a remake of the 1987 original (fifth with $12.3 million). Of that $12.3 million, methinks that a lot of the money came from the scores of Gossip Girl fans who flocked to see their beloved Dan Humphrey (Bagdley’s GG character’s name) on the big screen. Joel and Ethan Coen’s A Serious Man continued its strong start as it expanded to 82 theaters and grossed $860,257 for a solid $10,491 per-screen average. New York, I Love You, a collection of short films dedicated to the city, also opened well as it earned $372,000 from 119 theaters. Overall, revenues were up 41 percent from the same time last year, when Max Payne opened to $17.6 million. Maybe with the crappy weather currently blanketing much of the country, people were hoping that a trip to the theater could brighten their gloomy day. Typically that would be asking too much of the drivel occupying our nation’s multiplexes at any given time, but this was one weekend with enough solid films to make a trip to the movies worthwhile. Enjoy it while it lasts…………
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