- “Argo” has been the rare film that made the studio, film
industry and most movie fans happy. Very few people who had a hand in the film
being made or paid to see it in a theater came away upset or disappointed…but
leave it to the walking buzzkills in Iran to find a reason to complain. Iranian
officials, taking a break from rigging elections and trampling the basic human
rights of their people, are so irate over the way the Oscar-winning film portrayed their
country that they are actively seeking an avenue to sue its makers, including
director Ben Affleck. According to state media, the Iranian Iran media is
reporting today that the government is in talks with French lawyer Isabelle
Coutant-Peyre to figure out where and how to sue the filmmakers for the movie’s
“unrealistic portrayal” of their tyrannical regime. “Argo” details the story of
CIA
agent Tony Mendez rescuing Americans stranded in Tehran following the
1979 Islamic revolution and dictator Mahmoud Ahmadinejad believes the film is
anti-Iranian propaganda designed to poison the world’s already-low perception
of his country. Coutant-Peyre has represented convicted terrorists such as 9/11
mastermind Zacarias Moussaoui and Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, known as Carlos the
Jackal, so Iran is at least aiming big with its bogus legal crusade. In Iran’s
defense, its government has been b*tching about “Argo” since the film debuted
last year, decrying the movie as
“anti-Iranian” and “un-Islamic,” also labeling its portrayal of events
“ahistoric.” To kick off their legal push, authorities held a screening of the
film this week at a conference called “The Hoax of Hollywood.” Cultural
officials have not cleared the movie to be shown to the public, but bootleg DVD
copies can be readily purchased on the streets of Tehran. Given Iran’s rampant
oppression of its own film industry, its vitriolic reaction to the movie that
won an Oscar for Best Picture at February’s Academy Awards should surprise no
one………
- Homes on Long Island aren’t cheap. Even outside the
borders of Manhattan, renting or purchasing a domicile in the greater New York
City area invariably costs a lot of money. Dealing with that sort of financial
burden becomes significantly easier when a person buys their new bungalow,
moves in and finds a collection of forgotten art valued at an estimated $30
million. That fortunate fate befell Thomas Schultz, who a home in Bellport
for $300,000. He and business partner Lawrence Joseph didn’t buy the home
intending to move in right away and as more of an investment property, an
investment that paid off handsomely when he discovered what initially appeared
to be a massive pile of junk in the basement. “It looked like a pile of junk,
but on closer inspection I realized it was a vast body of work created by one
artist over 60 years,” Schultz said. “I knew right away I wasn’t going to throw
that artwork into the dumpster, it was bad karma.” Bad karma….and
terrible business. In that pile were thousands of paintings, drawings and
journals by obscure artist and former owner Arthur Pinajian. Schultz sorted out
the art and took it to be appraised by William Hastings Falk, who also worked
on the Andy Warhol estate. Falk put a $30 million price tag on the lot and
Schultz and Joseph have begun auctioning off pieces from the collection, with some
selling for more than $500,000. It’s not a bad yield for neglected, ignored art
found stashed in the attic and garage of a foreclosed home that no one wanted
and which sat on the market for months. Plus, if Schultz and Joseph can sell enough
of the art, they should be able to afford a place with more than 300 square
feet in Manhattan……..
- All British boxing fans should be sufficiently warned at
this point: Do NOT f*ck with former soccer player and current pugilist Curtis Woodhouse.
Yes, Woodhouse lost his English
light-welterweight title bout, on points, to Shane Singleton on Friday night.
He was defeated in the ring, but losing his belt didn’t break his spirit, nor
did the loss take away his desire to fight. On smack-talking Twitter follower
found that out when he started putting all sorts of ridiculousness on his
timeline and directing it at @woodhousecurtis. User @jimmyob88 started the
verbal pyrotechnics off when he tweeted, “: @woodhousecurtis retire immediately cant
even defend a pathetic little title you are a complete disgrace #awfulboxer.”
Woodhouse is far from the first athlete to be the target of a belligerent fan
looking to go Twitter tough guym but his response was unlike anything any
athlete before him unleashed. He first asked his followers if they might know where @jimmyob88 lived and the
situation escaated from there. The response from @jimmyob88 came back, “@woodhousecurtis
Whats funny u put so much effort in sacrificed all that time and failed to
defend your mickey mouse title #wasteofspunk.”Woodhouse then offered £1000 to
anybody that provided him with his new nemesis’ address and a picture for
identification purposes and taunted @jimmyob88, “good lad, ill enjoy our little
visit.” Undeterred, @jimmyob88
mocked Woodhouse again, asking if he was going to “knock me out
like your last opponent ooops.” The more the argument progressed, the angrier
Woodhouse became and the more @jimmyob88
began to backpedal. “just on my way to sheffield to have a little chat with a old friend,
get the kettle on,” the enraged boxer added, following that up by promising to
“send a picture of the road just to let you all know that im not messing about.”
At that point, a frazzled and panicked @jimmyob88 tried desperately to pretend that the entire saga was just a
joke that had gotten way, way out of hand. “
@woodhousecurtis i was only joking about
Didnt think you would be bothered thought you would take them as a joke,” he
added, presumably while double-checking the deadbolt lock on his apartment
door. Woodhouse replied that it was too late to let it go and began counting
down the minutes until he arrived at his destination. He asked his followers to
tweet out or direct message him @jimmyob88’s
address and said he would be there in 10 minutes. Sadly,
it appears that the fight never happened, as Woodhouse later tweeted that he
heard that @jimmyob88 packed
his bags, left his home and has not returned. Here’s hoping these two meet some
day………
- Rock out with your dissident c**k out, Chinese activist Ai Weiwei.
Weiwei, a perpetual target of the Communist Party for his outspoken criticism
of the government, is going Metallica in his efforts to get his message out. Typically
an artist of a different sort, Weiwei announced plans on Monday to release a
heavy-metal album that he said would "express his opinion" just as he
does with his art. He certainly looks the part for a metal singer, with a thick
beard and burly frame. His first foray into music was inspired by the 81 days
he spent in secretive detention in 2011 and the resulting international outcry.
"When I was arrested, they (his guards) would often ask me to sing songs,
but because I wasn't familiar with music, I was embarrassed," Ai
explained. “It helped me pass the time very easily. All I could sing was
Chinese People's Liberation Army songs. After that I thought: when I'm out, I'd
like to do something related to music.” The album’s sales could help him pay
the bogus $2.4 million fine a court levied against Ai in September, a fine he
insists was trumped up in retaliation for his criticism of the government. The
album, "Divina Commedia," is unique in the metal world because its
title is a reference to a poem by Italian poet Dante. It is also a tip of the
cap to the "Ai God" nickname in Chinese that his supporters know him
by. "Divina Commedia" in Chinese is "Shen qu" and the
Chinese government will undoubtedly find the project divinely annoying. Two of
its songs tell the story of blind legal activist Chen Guangcheng, who escaped
from house arrest last April and sought refuge in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. "Hotel
Americana" is a derisive slant on the U.S. Embassy’s decision to shelter
Chen. "Climbing over the Wall" details Chen scaling of the walls in
his village to escape, along with a clever double meaning in referencing Chinese
Internet users circumventing the "Great Firewall of China," a common
slang term for China's blocking of websites. The album is due out in three
weeks and although censorship laws make it unlikely the project will be sold in
China, Ai is hopeful that it will find an audience internationally………
- Way to step it up, rainforest. Much of the world is
terrified of global warming and enviro-alarmists around the globe are lamenting
the fact that rising temperatures will wreck the polar ice caps and threaten
the rainforest. According to researcher Dr. Chris Huntingford from the Centre for Ecology
& Hydrology in Britain, the rainforest may be sturdier than expected.
Huntingford’s work unearthed evidence of rainforest resilience to global
warming and indicated that tropical forests are less likely to lose biomass due
to global warming than climatologists previously thought. Biomass is
biological material derived from living, or recently living organisms and for
this study, researchers launched the most comprehensive study yet of the risk
of tropical forest dieback due to global warming. Huntingford’s team utilized
computer simulations with 22 climate models to examine the response of the
tropical forests in the Americas, Africa and Asia to greenhouse-gas-induced
climate change and saw loss of forest cover in only one model, the one based on
the Americas. In addition to the resiliency of the rainforest in the face of
climate change, the study also pinpointed the biggest X-factor in the
situation: variations in plant physiological processes. Because of significant uncertainties
lie in pinpointing how ecosystems act in response to global warming, knowing
how these processes may change is vital. Uncertainties are associated with
different carbon stock responses in models with different representations of
vegetation processes on the one hand, and differences in projected changes in
temperature and precipitation patterns on the other hand,” Huntingford wrote in
his report. He and his colleagues concluded that there is evidence of
rainforest resilience for the Americas, Africa and Asia and co-author David
Galbraith from the University of Leeds argued that the study proves that climatologists
must advance their understanding of how rainforests change in response to
global warming……..
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