- Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins isn't helping his or his band’s rock star image with his reaction to the release of the band's new documentary film Back And Forth, which also follows the recording of their new album 'Wasting Light.' Theoretically, any publicity is good publicity when you’re a rock star, even if it’s a warts-and-all documentary showing the story of recording the album in at-times-painful detail. Hawkins, however, wishes that the film was never seen. "I wish we wouldn't put the f*cking movie out to be honest because I'm not really comfortable with the public sort of openness, I'm really not," he said. In spite of his insecurities, which are decidedly un-rock and roll, Hawkins conceded that the documentary does have merit. "Trying to look at it from the outside and judge it and have some sort of perspective, I think it's actually way more interesting than I thought a movie about us was going to be," he said. "I think it's done well and yes, I think because there's points where you do feel uncomfortable, that’s what makes it interesting for people. Any rock documentary or any documentary, the centerpiece is the hard part, the painful part.” In explaining which parts of the film and filming process were the most painful for him, Hawkins channeled his inner drama queen and played up the tension as much as possible. "We almost broke up and I almost died and all those crazy things have happened. And that's what people want,” he whined. “If they're gonna watch a f*cking movie about you they don’t just want some guys sitting around and going, 'Ooh, it was really great and then we were all so happy and then we played this show and things just got better and we made lot of money.' That would be boring and unrealistic." For the record, Back And Forth first screened in a selection of U.K. cinemas April 7 and was well-received. No word on whether that warm reception did much to assuage Hawkins’ trepidation or if he’s still acting like a diva, but after lead singer Dave Grohl admitted several weeks ago that disco music like ABBA and the Bee Gees were a significant inspiration for the new album, Hawkins’ whining doesn’t seem quite as bad…………
- How many times have we all asked ourselves if our historical, 370-year-old home is haunted? That’s a question Dedham, Mass. homeowner Justin Schlesinger has been asking himself for some time. The home, built by his ancestors between 1637 and 1641, causes new flashlights to constantly go dark, even with fresh batteries and features the occasional sound of footsteps on the stairs when no one is there. The house’s brand-new alarm system once went off every night for several weeks with the alarm company helpless to offer an explanation. “There’s always been weird things happening in the house, from the doorbell going off a million times to flashlights never working,” said Schlesinger. The small, clapboard house is known as the Fairbanks home because it was built by English settlers Jonathan and Grace Fairbankes. It is the oldest timber frame house in America, located at the corner of East Street and Eastern Avenue until 1904, when the last resident, a spinster named Rebecca, sold the house to the Fairbanks Family in America, Inc., a group made up of Fairbanks descendants. The house was then converted into a museum and those who once called it home include a former vice president, after whom the city of Fairbanks, Alaska was named. Visitors come from all around the world to see the house, which its owners have worked diligently to keep just as it was in its early Colonial days. With no plumbing and no heat, it isn't the most inviting place to be, but museum operators believe that ghosts are a definite possibility. There have been multiple deaths in the home over the years and even one murder mystery in which one of the Fairbanks’ sons, Jason, was convicted in the brutal slaying of his girlfriend, Elizabeth Fales, in a nearby pasture after she rejected his marriage proposal. Schlesinger is on the museum’s board of directors and last fall, he asked a ghost-hunting group, The Atlantic Paranormal Society, or TAPS, to come in and observe. He even spent a night in the house with the TAPS investigators last September. “We heard footsteps in the beginning,” he said. “Up where the children used to sleep.” The TAPS group made audio recordings all night in an effort in an attempt to root our anything paranormal and informed Schlesinger afterward that the tapes did record some sounds, but nothing definitive. In other words, the question of haunted or not still has no clear answer…………
- With America fighting four wars at present (Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and obesity), anything that may help make any one of those wars easier is welcome. A new study from abroad may be just the weapon Americans need to battle obesity. Researchers from the Sapienza University of Rome in Italy studied 477 overweight or obese children by measuring wrist circumference (using a cloth tape measure) as well as insulin levels and insulin resistance. They also recorded wrist images via nuclear magnetic resonance scans for 50 of the children to ensure that bone size, not fatty tissue, was being measured. They were searching for a potential link between wrist size and obesity later in life. That notion may seem far-fetched and ridiculous to you, but considering heart disease is the leading killer of adults in the United States and the road to heart problems begins in childhood, isn't any potential link worth researching? Doctors don’t have a good measure to determine which children, even the über-FAT ones, will be most at risk for developing heart disease as adults. If measuring wrist circumference works, then why not try it? The logic behind the concept is actually quite simple and smart. We already know that childhood obesity can raise the risk for future heart disease, as can insulin resistance, in which the body has trouble lowering blood sugar. Yet checking waist size or calculating body mass index haven’t been reliable in assessing heart disease risk, largely because children often carry baby fat that disappears during puberty. However, insulin levels could be a different story. High insulin levels tend to lead to insulin resistance, which is a significant risk factor for heart disease. Those higher insulin levels are also are associated with higher bone mass because of an insulin-like chemical that regulates bone cell production. Thus, perhaps children with thicker bones have higher insulin levels, and therefore a higher risk for heart disease. In their study, researchers discovered that cloth-measured wrist circumference was a more reliable indicator of glucose levels and insulin resistance than was body mass index. In their report, the research team wrote: “Our findings suggest a close relationship among wrist circumference, its bone component, and insulin resistance in overweight/obese children and adolescents, opening new perspectives in the prediction of cardiovascular disease.” To read more about their findings, simply peruse your copy of the latest issue of the journal Circulation, no doubt resting on your coffee table as you read this……….
- Let’s try an instant reaction experiment: Imagine that a legislator in an unidentified country was busted for viewing porn on his tablet computer during a legislative session, right on the floor of the legislature’s main hall. What country would you guess to be the home for this fine, upstanding representative of the people? The United States would have to be the top choice, right? After all, where is porn a bigger part of life and more widely accepted and viewed than the U.S.? Plus, there are more than enough freaks, perverts and misfits in Congress for at least a few senators and/or representatives to allow their freak flag to fly by checking out some adult-oriented cinematography during a particularly boring debate or filibuster. But no, this tawdry incident did not take place on Capitol Hill, but instead occurred in Indonesia, or all places. Indonesia, where pornography is contraband and possessing it can get a person sent to jail. Yet even the threat of jail time wasn’t enough to dissuade Arifinto, a lawmaker for the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS). Arifinto was caught last week watching a dirty movie on his tablet in the House of Representatives and initially denied the allegation. When photographic and video evidence of his guilt emerged, he reluctantly doubled back and admitted to his dirty deed. He officially resigned Monday in light of outrage directed at him in the largely Muslim and socially conservative nation. Yet despite its conservative atmosphere and laws against pornography, porn stars are hugely popular and often visit the country to star in locally produced films. Those films actually tend to experience quite a bit of success commercially, but they have vocal opposition from national lawmakers who frequently call for new measures to eradicate the porn menace from their country. Want to guess who one of the loudest voices in that chorus has been over the past few years? Arifinto, that’s who! Was he simply doing research for some new bill to further persecute the porn industry in Indonesia? Nope. He admitted in an interview that he simply slipped up and planned to redeem himself by seeking religious forgiveness, reciting the Koran and seeking advice from ulemas. He also vowed to commit acts of piety and profusely apologized to the party, its sympathizers and constituents as well as other House members. But hey, he now has plenty of free time in which to engage in his new hobby if he doesn’t feel like giving it up just yet…………
- Major League Baseball may still be early in its season, with all teams having played less than seven percent of their games, but the rage and hatred are already burning white-hot in one of the sport’s best rivalries and the violence that occurred outside Dodger Stadium on opening night (March 31) has been the talk of not just baseball, but of the sports world and the state of California ever since. In one of the ugliest fan incidents in recent memory, Giants fan Bryan Stow was brutally beaten by three Dodgers fans who remain at large. He has been in a medically-induced coma at a Los Angeles-area hospital since the attack and thus unable to watch as the two teams met in San Francisco Monday night, the first in a three-game series and also their first matchup since the attack. In the interim, both franchises and political officials from both cities have gone out of their way to denounce the incident and lay out security measures to prevent a similar incident from ever happening. "I've heard the fans and the citizens of this community, they're uncomfortable with the behavior of some at Dodger Stadium," Dodgers owner Frank McCourt said at a news conference on Friday. "I have one message for the fans and the citizens of Los Angeles: I hear you loudly, and I hear you clearly." His comments were echoed by Los Angeles police chief Charlie Beck and mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who outlined a "zero tolerance policy" for fan misconduct that will be implemented immediately. "When you go into Dodger Stadium, you're going to meet a Los Angeles police officer. When you leave Dodger Stadium you're going to bid farewell to a Los Angeles police officer," Beck said. "We will be a constant presence." The Dodgers have always shouldered the responsibility for hiring security for their home games and have used a combination of private security guards and off-duty police officers who do not wear a uniform and do not carry a gun. Beginning with their next home game on Thursday, those off-duty officers will be in uniform and approved to carry a weapon. For the ongoing Giants-Dodgers series in the Bay Area, the Giants have employed what they deem "World Series-level" security measures to help prevent any retaliatory incidents from the Opening Day beating. The team's senior vice president for stadium operations, Jorge Costa, laid out the security measures after previously estimating that the security force for Monday's game would be "15-25 percent" larger than a typical home game. After meeting with his staff and San Francisco police on Sunday, he revised his estimate and said the size of that force would be even larger, probably 30-40 percent bigger than a typical home game. "We've done our due diligence. We've put the resources together. We've got the plan. Now it's just executing it," Costa said. "We're hoping it turns out to be a nice event, but realistically we know there will be some element of hubris, testosterone and alcohol that gets involved. That's the way it is. As far as the Giants management is concerned, there isn't going to be any reason why a Dodger fan or any other opposing fan can't coexist with Giants fans." What would he say to Giants fans not swayed by repeated pleas to not respond to violence with more violence? "Don't show up. There's no room for people like that here. Period," Costa stated. Not that anyone dumb enough and Neanderthal enough to show up at one of this series’ games looking for payback would be receptive to those words, but here’s hoping the series comes and goes without further violence…………
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