Monday, June 25, 2012

Fleeting pop stardom, Greece v. Macedonia and Lana Del Rey is scared

- The world is going to be a scary place for a long, long time for pop music hack Lana Del Rey. She has no discernable musical talent an apparently, the reality that people will recognize her complete limitations and decide they don’t want to listen to the garbage she calls music is terrifying to her. She admitted she found it "scary" when people decided they didn't like her following her rise to her 15 minutes of fame last year. On the “strength” of her chart-topping single “Video Games,” Del Rey achieved a few fleeting minutes of fame and is now on her way to fading right back into the obscurity from whence she came. "What's scary is when you have your focus on being a writer for 10 years, and after that people decide they don't like you," she said. "That's off-putting, because when you've put all your work into crafting words and melodies, and then people start just thinking about you and judging you as a person that's a little off-putting. But the rest of it isn't scary, it's just sort of different." Know what else is off-putting, L? Your gawd-awful music, that’s what. Del Rey seems to believe, mistakenly, that she is being judged for her personality rather than her musical ability.
 Believing that people are criticizing you because they have some false image of who you are is a nice way to divert attention from the fact that your music is absolute sh*t and that’s why hate is flowing your way. Del Rey is currently on tour promoting her one and only album and is set to play a host of UK festivals in the next few weeks…………


- Greece and Macedonia, can the two of you not learn how to play nice and just get along? For that to happen, Greek border authorities will probably need to stop placing stickers on Macedonian cars that have license plates with the country designator MK. License plates in all European Union nations have a two-letter designator indicating what country they are from and the country codes are at the heart of an ongoing territorial dispute between the two nations. Since Macedonia gained independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, the Greek government has argued that the MK moniker implies a territorial claim on its northern region of Macedonia — a claim rejected by its neighbor. Macedonian Foreign Minister Nikola Poposki responded furiously Monday after border agents began applying the stickers, which are written in Greek and English with the message "Recognized by Greece as FYROM" — referring to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia — the country's provisional name at the United Nations. Poposki called the action "illegal and a pointless provocation." Greece continues to c*ck-block Macedonia's accession to NATO over the dispute even though more than 130 nations recognize the country as Macedonia. Subscribing to the theory that stickers on cars win wars and are the most effective tool in making a statement like your child being an honor student at Anytown Junior High or asking why we can’t all just coexist is risky, but credit to the Greeks for throwing some much-needed business the way of their local Kinkos to crank out thousands of stickers. That should be just what Greece needs to get its economy going…………


- The end of a football player’s college career and his transition to the NFL can be a stressful time. Leaving behind the world of showing up for class occasionally and wearing your sweats when you do attend, subsisting on ramen noodles and Easy Mac for weeks on end and trying to find a kegger to enjoy every night of your weekend and becoming a professional is challenging. Being paid to play and having your new team expect professionalism and responsibility is not always easy and for some players, the strain is tough to handle. Count new Seattle Seahawks – SEATTLE SEAHAWKS – defensive end Bruce Irvin as one of the guys for whom the transition has been a bit overwhelming. Irvin, who balled at big-time party school West Virginia and may have boozed away one too many brain cells during his time in Morgantown, is trying to settle in to his new home in the Pacific Northwest and during an offseason camp, he appeared on The Real Rob Report, a production of Seahawks Pro Bowl fullback Michael Robinson. Asked to predict what impact he will have on his new team, Irvin predicted he will have double-digit sacks in his rookie season, but refused to pick a specific number in order to avoid jinxing himself. The interview then came off the rails when Irvin discussed the moment he learned he’d been drafted by Seattle. “I saw a Washington number,” Irvin said. “I said, ‘Who’s calling me from Washington?’ Picked it up, it was John Schneider. They asked me if I wanted to be a Redskin and I was like, ‘Hell yeah.’ It’s a great organization.” Umm….Bruce….you play in Washington STATE, not Washington, D.C. You’re a Seahawk, not a Redskin. You may want to figure that out before you put on that helmet with a picture of a bird on both sides, not a picture of a Native American with a feather in his hair. Robinson interrupted Irvin after his misspeak, asking, “Asked if you wanted to be a who?” Realizing what he had done, Irvin kept it laugh and tried to laugh it off. “I mean a Seahawk,” Irvin said with a chuckle. “I f–ked up. I f–ked up.” Seattle fans had better hope the team didn’t f*ck up by selecting him with the 15th overall pick and if he can live up to his lofty expectations for his rookie season, he’ll be the one who is laughing………


- Stonehenge has remained one of the most compelling mysteries in the world for decades. Theories abound to explain how it was built, why it was built and what it means. A tea of researchers from the University of Sheffield’s Department of Archaeology have spent the past decade digging (no pun intended) in to the mystery of the site and of course, they have a theory of their own. The British archaeologists have proposed that the rocky site may represent a monument to unity among the dwindling peoples of the ancient British west. It’s a simple, non-glamorous concept, so of course it won't gain much traction with the conspiracy theory-loving masses. Sheffield professor Mike Parker Pearson has written a book about the study, titled “Stonehenge: Exploring the Greatest Stone Age Mystery,” and states in the book that his team believes that indicators at the site reveal that the monument’s construction required a tremendous amount of cooperation between the various groups inhabiting western Britain when Stonehenge was erected around 4,000 to 4,500 years ago. The unusual monument sits on a grassy plain near Salisbury, and is constructed of massive blocks of stone arranged in a very ordered way. Inquiring minds have been attempting to unravel Stonehenge’s mysteries since 1130 A.D., when an English historian said that “no one can conceive how such great stones have been so raised aloft, or why they were built here.” Among the theories are aliens building the monument to it being a tribute to an ancient fertility god. More sensible minds have credited the structure to the influences of architecture of the time in which is was supposedly built. Stonehenge appears to have been the last gasp of the Stone Age culture of Britain’s Neolithic people, who were isolated from the rest of Europe for centuries. The Sheffield team noted the vast resources and thousands of workers that would have been required for the project and thus, point to Stonehenge as a unifying force among the people in the area. They also believe that Stonehenge’s location was chosen on the basis of a natural coincidence because its main avenue lined up with the sunrises of the yearly solstices and also with features in the surrounding landscape. “When we stumbled across this extraordinary natural arrangement of the sun’s path being marked in the land, we realized that prehistoric people selected this place to build Stonehenge because of its pre-ordained significance,” Parker said. And so is fired another shot across the bow of those rooting for aliens to be the true creators of one of the world’s greatest wonders………..


- For small, local breweries looking to find their niche and build their brand, coming up with the perfect flavor and ideal sales gimmick is essential. These are two of the primary means a small brewery has for distinguishing itself from the massive population of microbrews and homemade beers on the market. For the Rogue Brewery in Portland, Ore., the quest for a unique adult beverage gas taken a disturbing turn inspired by the hirsute facial fashions of brew master John Maier. Maier has been channeling his inner NHLer during a playoff run since 1978, growing a thoroughly ridiculous beard that is equal parts revolting and astonishing. Like any group of dudes given enough time and sufficient lack of control, Maier and his boys decided to send a sample from his beard in for scientific testing to see what it contained. Combine that burst of stupidity with the need for a new yeast strain for their beer and….bam, there it was. The beard yeast turend out to be perfect for making beer. “I think people are going to be excited about it,” said Rogue Brewery employee John Couchot. “I mean this really is the needle in the haystack, and to find it on our brewmaster is phenomenal." Excited is not the reaction most beer drinkers will have; revolted is probably a better description. However, the public can rest assured that Rogue Brewery is not going to simply unleash this follicular brew on the world without doing its homework. The beard yeast is currently being used in test brews and the finished product is scheduled to be released early next year………..

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