Saturday, May 25, 2013

Turkey goes wet blanket, a 7-foot-tall NFLer and Morgan Freeman falls asleep mid-interview


- Morgan Freeman can get away with a lot of sh*t and still be cool because….well…he’s Morgan F’ing Freeman. He’s one of the coolest dudes around, he has the best voice this side of James Earl Jones and he’s been a cast member of some of the best movies in the past three decades. That’s why anyone who wants to crack the 75-year-old actor for falling asleep on air during an interview with Michael Caine on Tacoma Fox affiliate Q13 should check themselves and take several giant steps backward from their current position. The interview was to promote their new film, “Now You See Me,” which features a crew of bank-robbing Las Vegas magicians. Caine was talking and like any self-important actor, he was neck-deep in a long and rambling story about his craft. He was droning on and on about magic tricks and somewhere along the way, Freeman nodded off. Ever the professional, Freeman woke up in time to do some of his best impromptu acting by feigning interest in Caine's rambling story. However, he didn’t try to pretend that he was “just resting his eyes” or that the entire incident was somehow a big joke. Instead, Freeman owned it in a way that only a 75-year-old dude who knows he has the voice of God and a résumé like few others can own sleeping in a live interview. He cracked a joke about the situation, saying through his spokesman, “I wasn’t actually sleeping. I’m a beta tester for Google Eyelids. I was merely updating my Facebook page.” There is an even money chance Freeman has neiter a single Google device nor a Facebook page that he actually uses, but the joke fits and if someone wants to make fun of Ellis “Boyd” Redding, the guy who can get you things inside Shawshank prison, then they’re the one with a problem……..


- Oh joy, the time of nutty senior pranks is here again. As high school seniors across America lazy their way through their final few days of their high school careers and put as little effort into their school work as they do into microwaving some pizza rolls for breakfast as 1 p.m., there are a few bold and inventive souls who take a few hours and invest some of their abundant creative energy into pulling off a prank they hope will make them a legend in the halls of their school for decades to come. Whether it’s pulling down a door frame and sneaking their principal’s disassembled compact car into the school to be rebuilt in the gym or letting hundreds of chickens loose in the halls overnight, every senior worth his or her salt wants to execute an epic prank to be remembered by. If a certain key figure in American history can be involved in the process, so much the better. It’s a truth an unidentified senior at Portland’s (Ore.) Lincoln High School knows all too well. The school, clearly named after the 16th President of the United States, Abaraham Lincoln, is home to a life-sized statue of the late president. That statue currently lacks a head after the senior in question decapitated it in what is being described by school officials as a prank gone wrong. Principal Peyton Chapman said the head was broken-off overnight Wednesday when a pulley system failed, causing the statue to tumble to the ground. The head broke off in the process and while it would have been much cooler if the head were lopped off on purpose, a result is a result no matter what. In a highly questionable move, the responsible students came forward and admitted what they had done. The police were called, although Chapman said she hopes to handle discipline internally because she does not believe any malice was involved. In the interim, other students created a makeshift memorial for the statue, complete with a poster, flowers and a balloon in the area where the statue once stood……


- Luring gamers in and suckering them into buying your product is all about originality and presentation. Companies must find a way to offer an experience that pale, sunlight-deprived gaming losers cannot find anywhere else. Codemasters is hoping it has the magic formula correct with its exclusive Grid 2: Mono Edition, a racing game that comes with special packaging, a PlayStation 3 console, a Grid 2-branded helmet and a street-legal BAC Mono supercar. The special edition of Grid 2 is accented by he BAC Mono, a British-built machine with a carbon fiber body and four-cylinder engine generating 280 bhp that allows it to accelerate from 0 to 60 in less than three seconds and tops out at 170 mph. But wait…there’s more. Toss in that bitchin’ helmet, a Grid 2 racing suit with boots and gloves fitted for the user and a day at the BAC factory including a tour and time spent with technicians on-car customizations and it’s safe to say that some idiot will throw down thousands upon thousands of dollars for this package. Codemasters claims this is the most expensive special edition videogame ever created, but its most-valuable aspect has little to do with what it contains and everything to do with the fact that only one is being made and it's only available in Europe. Rich people with money to burn love exclusive items and they generally enjoy traveling to Europe, so this is a win-win. Whoever buys the package can drive their special vehicle to work because it is street legal. The buyer will have a nice edge because while the standard wait time for a BAC Mono is 14 months, the purchaser of the Grid 2 Mono Edition will take delivery in just six months. For those who can't afford this special offer, Grid 2 comes out on May 28 in North America and May 31 in Europe for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC………


- Most NFL draft experts ranked the St. Louis Rams’ class from last month’s draft as one of the better ones. For a team that improved drastically last season but still has a long way to go to be a contender, that was good news. Even with a good draft, though, a team can always use some more muscle up front. The Rams found a lot of muscle – 6-foot-10 and 403 pounds of it – this week when they signed Terrell Brown, an undrafted free agent out of Ole Miss. Brown, who played sparingly during his three-year career at Ole Miss, was listed at 6-foot-10 and 388 pounds leading up to the draft. He wasn’t exactly a stalwart for the Rebels, playing in just two games at offensive tackle in 2012 and eight games at defensive tackle in 2011. His size allowed him to become a sort of freak attraction at Ole Miss' pro day, where his 38-inch arms and 92 3/8-inch wingspan stood out in a room full of freaks. He ran the 40 in 5.80 and 5.88 seconds, had a 5.65-second short shuttle and a 8.98-second three-cone drill and posted a 23½-inch vertical jump and 6-foot-9 broad jump. His strength wasn’t exactly overwhelming (22 lifts on the bench press), but the Rams saw enough to offer him a free-agent deal and give him a chance to make their team this summer. When they got him to their facility, he turned out to be larger than advertised. The Rams have elected to shift him from the defensive line to offensive line, head coach Jeff Fisher said. "Actually, we weighed him in at 403," Fisher explained. "We had him in for the tryout, and he had some issues that we had to clear up from a physical standpoint. But he got that put behind us. We worked him out on both sides of the ball, defensive line and offensive line, and we felt like his best position would be right tackle.” It will now fall to Rams offensive line coach Paul Boudreau to make a viable NFL player out of Brown………


- Turkey just became a lot less fun. The country’s uptight parliament has passed a law to ban all advertising of alcohol and tighten restrictions on sales in the mainly Muslim but secular country. This buzzkill outfit approved the bill today and this wet blanket of legislative excess bans the sale of alcoholic drinks between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. It also prohibits alcohol sales anywhere close to mosques and educational centers. Oh, and there is also the provision that bars drink companies from promoting their brands and forces the blurring of images of alcoholic drinks on television. That’s right, blurry beer mugs on TV and no whiskey for that Irish Car Bomb if you forget to buy it before your party starts. The most obvious question about the new law is why, as in why is the government trying to harsh everyone’s buzz by going all prohibitionist on their asses. Officials have argued that the law is aimed at protecting Turkey’s youth from the harm caused by alcohol. That argument falls flat because children in any culture who really want to get their drink on are going to find a way no matter what laws are in place. Secularist opponents of the new law have smartly accused the Islamic-rooted ruling party of gradually imposing an Islamic agenda and while they left out the buzzkill/wet blanket rhetoric, it was implied. Anyone who hasn’t yet stocked up on their hard liquor or booze has time to act before the measure goes into place, as the legislation needs presidential approval before going into effect. The one solid part of the law that no one should oppose is the stricter penalties on drunken driving in would impose…….

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