- So…..let’s say you’re some run-of-the-mill, no-name bridal shop in a major U.S. city and you’re seeking a way to separate yourself from the crowd. You need something to elevate your business above the fray and so you find inspiration striking when you hear about the impending royal wedding of Britain’s Prince William and fiancée Kate Middleton. You tell yourself that if you can be the little shop that could, the shop that beats out all of the world-famous, internationally known fashion designers and gets Middleton to wear one of your dresses for the wedding, it would put you on the map. The good folks putting on the Houston Bridal Extravaganza had that very dream and that dream is what brought a Houston jeweler and bridal shop owner together for a (publicity grabbing) offer to Middleton. Select Jewelers and Ventura’s Bridal teamed up to create a dress "blinged-out" with one million dollars in diamonds, sapphires and other precious gemstones and are offering Middleton the chance to borrow the dress for her April wedding. "In Texas we’re known for doing things big and a little over the top," says Laurette Veres, producer of the Bridal Extravaganza. "This dress is absolutely stunning. It would make any girl feel like a queen. I hope the Royal Family takes us up on our offer. It would be a tremendous honor to have Princess Kate walk down the aisle in something created here in Houston." Big and over the top? How about tacky and gaudy? When she could pick any dress she wants and have designers fly her all over the world to wine and dine her in order to be the one whose design she wears, why would she pick a tacky dress from some random shop in Texas? Just don’t tell that to Taska Ventura, owner of Ventura’s Bridal. She’s worked herself into a frenzy on this one and seems just delusional enough to believe that her dress has a chance to be the one. "The whole world will be watching," Ventura said. "With a million dollars in jewels to work with, it would be easy for it to become gaudy. I wanted it to be tasteful and elegant, just as Princess Diana’s dress was. If Kate Middleton accepts our offer to borrow this dress, the style could shape bridal fashions for years to come." So inspired by her pipe dream was Ventura that she went above and beyond the call of duty and also created a sexy party dress for Middleton to wear at the reception. "Like any young person she likes to dance and go out to the clubs," Ventura explained. "She’s not going to be able to dance in the gown, so I thought I’d create something she could cut loose in." I’m glad you enjoyed this pub grab, er, attempt to win such a lofty honor…………
- Worried that you might not get the necessary data space you desire if you go with the iPhone that Verizon will soon be offering, tech dorks? Fret no more. Verizon Wireless will offer unlimited data plans when it starts selling the iPhone, setting its version of the popular smartphone apart from the one offered by rival AT&T. Anyone entering into a new data plan for an iPhone on AT&T have two data plans to choose from and both cap the amount that can be used. The arrangement came in a major power play by AT&T, which did away with its unlimited plan for new subscribers last summer, hoping to put a technological chokehold on some of its more prolific data users. The biggest data plan AT&T currently offers its two gigabits for $25 a month. That’s fine for most users especially when compared to Verizon's $30 unlimited plan. If you’re a person who doesn’t need copious amounts of data usage in a month and can stick to a prescribed limit, then the difference between the two plans isn’t substantial. What’s funny is that even if they don’t need an unlimited data plan, most people chafe when they’re told what they can or cannot do and thus take umbrage with the idea of data caps. A survey last year by analysts at Sanford Bernstein found that most subscribers dislike the idea of data caps, even though AT&T claims its two-gigabit plan would allow subscribers to stream 200 hours of YouTube video a month. The only AT&T customers allowed to have unlimited data plans are those who had them before the new rules went into place and were grandfathered in. Verizon hasn’t commented on the unlimited data plans yet, so no one knows how long the carrier will offer them. Verizon executives have stated numerous times that the industry needs to move to some form of tiered pricing as data use rises. Even AT&T has admitted that it was caught off-guard by iPhone users' heavy data consumption. High data usage caused major problems on its network, especially dropped calls. Now it’s on Verizon to prove it can handle the same heavy burden, especially if its meets projected sales figures of as many as 12 million iPhones sold in the first year alone……….
- Charlotte Bobcats forward Stephen Jackson is crazy. No one is questioning that part of Captain Jack’s persona, so he can say most anything and most who hear it will write it off as his insane side rearing its ugly head. That will happen when you are the teammate who joins Ron Artest when he bum-rushes the stands to pummel a fan for throwing a cup of beer at him in the single ugliest player-fan melee in NBA history. With that as a backdrop, how does one process Jackson’s statement that the Bobcats had no other choice than to fire Hall of Fame coach Larry Brown so they could shift to a more effective offensive style? Jackson made the remarks Sunday when talking about how the team has managed a mini-turnaround under interim coach Paul Silas after starting the season 9-19 under Brown’s captaincy. “It’s kind of like losing a team. Nobody wanted to play no more,” Jackson said. “Everybody wanted to play a different style than we were playing. We didn’t agree with what was going on. Obviously, it wasn’t working, so we needed a change. We had to figure something out.” Wow…..some heavy words from a player who is a talented, yet erratic loose cannon who will never be confused with the game’s elite. His words might have a small amount of credence with the Bobcats sitting at 4-2 since making the coaching change, but the emphasis there is on the world small. Brown is easily the biggest coaching nomad in basketball or any other sport for that matter, having coached 13 different college or professional teams. Any school or franchise bringing in Brown knows it is hiring a great basketball mind but also someone with an incurable case of wanderlust who won't be there for more than three years, maximum. He did lead the Bobcats to a 44-38 record and the franchise’s first playoff berth last season after a number of moves, including Jackson’s acquisition in a November 2009 trade with Golden State. Gratitude for that experience must not have meant much to Jackson. Brown did his part to hasten his own departure, publicly voicing displeasure with owner Michael Jordan’s decision to not re-sign point guard Raymond Felton, who ended up in New York and as one of the league’s elite point guards this season. Another move that pushed Brown closer to his tipping point was Jordan’s decision to trade center Tyson Chandler essentially to get the payroll below the luxury tax threshold. The result of those moves was a younger, more athletic team Jackson believes did not mesh well with Brown’s precision offense. “We’re younger and we have to play a little faster,” Jackson said. “The makeup of the team is different and I think now with Paul as coach the young guys have more confidence to go out there and play basketball and not worry about coming out of the game.” Brown’s firing ultimately came on Dec. 22, the day after the Bobcats were outscored 31-12 by Oklahoma City in their fourth straight loss. Perhaps he had lost the team, as three losses by 31 points or more in the previous two weeks would suggest. However, nothing like cracking a hall-of-famer on his way out the door. Stay classy, Captain Jack………..
- On what can only be described as a disappointing weekend at the box office, True Grit limped to a weak victory atop a horrifically bad collection of contenders so bad that burning down the screens at the local multiplex would have been doing everyone a favor this particular weekend. The remake of the classic John Wayne film made $15 million, down 39 percent from last weekend despite adding 41 new theaters. That raised its cumulative total to $110.4 million, an impressive three-week total for a film made on a $38 million budget. In second place was the worst film in the top 10…..or 20…..or 100……pretty much the worst movie in theaters right now, Little Fockers. An epically bad sequel made solely in the name of a cash grab on a tired movie franchise that should have died after one installment, this train wreck made $13.7 million to finish in second place, a 45-percent drop and yet enough to raise its three-week total to $123.9 million. Third place went to a new film that has been universally panned as another disappointing Nicolas Cage movie, Season of the Witch. A debut of $10.7 million isn’t going to overwhelm anyone, but the movie’s relatively modest $40 million budget means it won't be a complete bust unless it falls off the map in the next three weeks or so. In fourth was Tron Legacy, taking a hit of 47 percent from last weekend after four weeks of release but still making $9.8 million to boost its total take to $148 million for one month’s work. Completing the top five was Black Swan, which has thus far succeeded despite being in far fewer theaters than its competitors and did so once more by earning $8.4 million in a mere 1,584 theaters for the highest per-theater average of any top 20 movie for the frame. Its scant $13 million budget compares favorably with $61.5 million (and counting) in earnings, needless to say. The rest of the top 10 consisted of: Country Strong (No. 6 with $7.3 million in its first weekend of widened release - two theaters last weekend - and an increase in profit of 17,488 percent from last weekend), The Fighter (No. 7 with $7 million, meaning it has made $57.8 million through five weekends in theaters), The King’s Speech (still in limited release with 758 theaters but making $6.9 million for $33.3 million in its seven weekends of limited release), the plummeting Yogi Bear (No. 9 with $6.8 million, a 45 percent decline yet not enough to prevent this mediocre movie from creeping closer to the break-even point with $75.6 million in cumulative earnings) and Tangled ($5.2 million and an overall total of $175.8 million). Falling out of the top 10 were The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which sank like a stone from fifth last weekend to No. 11 this time around, and the über-disappointing Gulliver's Travels, down from eighth to No. 12 for this weekend……….
- Have you ever been to a trial for 800-plus people? If not, now would be a great time to book a ticket for the next flight to Bangladesh so you can witness the trial of more than 800 paramilitary troopers accused of a mutiny against their officers two years ago, beginning Wednesday. Police and court officials announced the start of the trial on Saturday and it marks the culmination of a bizarre, dramatic and violent saga in which the accused troopers, who worked as border guards, were indicted on charges of murder, rape, arson, looting weapons and conspiracy for mutiny. So large will this trial be that the government had to set up a makeshift court adjoining the central jail in Dhaka, the capital, to accommodate the large number of defendants in the case. Along with the 800 troopers, civilians, including a former lawmaker from the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, will also be on trial. The BNP has argued that the indictment of former government official Nasiruddin Ahmed Pintu was politically motivated. In preparing for the trial, massive contingents of police were deployed in and around the makeshift court in an effort to avoid violence. State prosecutor Mosharrof Hossain Kazal said that 824 people were charged and 21 had been on the run since the mutiny ended. "If proved guilty, the accused may face penalty from life-term imprisonment to death sentence," he said. "All accused will have the right to appeal to a higher court against the trial court judgment." Presiding over this legal circus will be Dhaka metropolitan sessions judge Zahirul Haque. Officials expect the trial to last as long as a year, which seems like an eternity until you realize how difficult it will be to try 823 people. The charges all stem from a February 2009 uprising in which several thousand armed soldiers from the Bangladesh Rifles, a border guard force, took control of the BDR's headquarters in Dhaka for two days. The troopers on trial beginning this week allegedly massacred 74 people, including 57 Bangladesh army officers who were assigned to the BDR, and took hostages, including officers' families. Among the dead were BDR chief, Maj. Gen. Shakil Ahmed, and his wife. Why the (alleged) mutiny, you ask? Prosecutors say the troopers were protesting for better pay and benefits and also demanded withdrawal of all army officers from the force. Their actual responsibility is to guard the country's land border, which is more than 2,500 miles long. But hey, if you don’t have time for a bloody coup every now and then, maybe life just isn’t worth living…….
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