- Rock stars who take themselves too seriously are always a
drag. Putting up with a pompous frontman or a grandstanding guitarist who
believes he or she is the perfect mash-up of Hendix, Lennon, Cobain, Vedder and
Bono can be virtually impossible and the presence of these a-holes makes
rockers like Queens Of The Stone Age frontman Josh Homme such a welcome change of pace. Homme,
who is a member of rock supergroup Them Crooked Vultures as well, has a
distinct view on guitar solos and that view, quite simply, is that they are
“nonsense.” Homme is of the opinion that such solos have one and only one
purpose. “Guitar solos to me, should be a really articulate way to make
fun of guitar solos,” he explained. “My guitar solos [have] gotten to nonsense
and sometimes they sound like nonsense, but they're played on purpose.” Guitar
solos as a form of self-efficacy? Interesting. Befor anyone calls him out for
his point of view, just know that Homme is solidly rooted and versed in the
history of the art form he is cracking. “I grew up listening to early ZZ Top –
those records blew my mind. And I listened to Hendrix first and to me Hendrix
is the ultimate guitar player,” he added. “To me there's two Jimmys: there's
Jimi Hendrix and there's Jimmy Page." Homme’s comments come as Queens Of
The Stone Age promote their new album “Like Clockwork,” which drops on Tuesday.
The album, which is currently being streamed online, consists of 10 tracks with
contributions from guest stars such as Dave Grohl (also in Them Crooked Vultures with Homme), Elton John, Nine Inch Nails'
Trent Reznor, Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner and Jake Shears of Scissor
Sisters. QOTS debuted all of the new songs at a show at The Wiltern last week
in Los Angeles and the band have also announced that they will play a tiny in-store
gig at London's Rough Trade East on June 11……
- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! It was ON Friday in central Istanbul,
where Turkish police fired tear gas and water cannons on Friday at protesters
occupying a park in opposition to a hodgepodge of issues that began on Monday
after developers tore up trees. The predictable overreaction by The Man was so
excessive that it also left several tourists wounded. Friday’s attack
represents the harshest crackdown so far on days of anti-government unrest
centered around opposition to Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's Islamist-rooted
Justice and Development Party (AKP). Gezi Park was the scene of the clash and
Friday’s violence came after a dawn police raid on demonstrators who had camped
for days in the park in anger at plans to build a shopping mall. As riot police
waged their own little war, clouds of tear gas wafted through nearby Taksim
Square, long a venue for political protest. In the aftermath of the raid, the
broken glass and rocks were strewn across a main shopping street and those who
weren't there can still enjoy images of a group of crying school children
running from the scene with tears flowing down their faces and terrified
tourists scurrying back to their nearby hotels. "We do not have a government,
we have Tayyip Erdogan...Even AK Party supporters are saying they have lost
their mind, they are not listening to us," said protestot Koray Caliskan.
"This is the beginning of a summer of discontent." Istanbul has been
on edge for weeks now, ever since riot police clashed with tens of thousands of
May Day protesters in Istanbul a couple months back. Protests against the
government's stance on the conflict in neighboring Syria have kept the
dissidence scene hopping and a recent tightening of restrictions on alcohol
sales and warnings against public displays of affection have kept the populace sufficiently
agitated. Ripping trees out of the ground to clear the way for a mall was
merely a suitable spark to ignite the latest round of unrest that left an Egyptian
tourist in critical condition after being hit by a police gas canister and 12
people, including a pro-Kurdish MP and a photographer suffered trauma injuries
while hundreds of others suffered respiratory problems due to the effects of
tear gas during the clashes…….
- Changes are afoot for Gmail users. Over the course of the
next week, alterations will be rolled out for all users of Google’s popular
mail service. Gmail is getting tabs, just like a browser, but these tabs will
be slightly different. Their purpose will be to facilitate the
new auto-sorting powers Gmail has been granted in an attempt to make its
services easier to use. In a sense, the tabs are the next step of the spam
blocker. After collecting years’ worth of data, Google has used its learnings
to perform tasks like taking notifications from services like Facebook and
Twitter and filing them away in a folder titled Social. For those nonstop
emails offering 2-for-1 scuba diving lessons, Gmail will now be able to file
tem in the Promotions folder. Life details-related to nagging tasks like bills
and receipts will now be stashed in the Updates folder. Sorting emails and
sending them off to their own specific corner of a person’s email account is an
attempt to unclog the ol’ inbox amidst the ever-growing flood of messages a
person receives in a given day. While texting, tweeting, communicating through
photo- and video-sharing services such as Vine and Instagram have all usurped
the position email once held in the world of electronic communication, emails
are still sent and those Nigerian inheritance scams and discount Canadian
pharmacy emails can choke out the viable messages sent to an individual. Google
unveiled the new Gmail this week with the aim of making sure messages on one’s
inbox are the messages one actually wants to see. Among the previous upgrades
to Google, spam filters, a Starred email folder and an auto-populating Priority
Inbox have all been implemented with the same general purpose as the new
updates. Most of them haven’t made a huge splash, but perhaps this time will be
different…….
- One nation (hint: the United States) may not give a
collective damn about soccer, but any notion that it isn’t the world’s sport
are unfounded and then some. French club Monaco is spending amounts of money that dwarf
some nations’ GDP and may not be done throwing cash around. The shopping spree
ramped up a notch Friday as Monaco agreed to sign Colombian striker Radamel
Falcao from Atletico Madrid on a five-year deal. Although no financial details
were given by either club, the cost of the transfer is estimated at 50 million
euros to 60 million euros ($65 million to $78 million), with an annual salary
of 14 million euros ($18.2 million). That kind of coin puts Falcao on par with
Paris Saint-Germain star Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who happens to play for the very
club that Monaco is trying to buy its way past in the hierarchy of French
soccer. The Falcao signing comes one week after Monaco poached Portugal
midfielder Joao Moutinho and Colombia international James Rodriguez from FC
Porto for a combined 70 million euros ($91.2 million). "We are very happy
that Radamel Falcao has chosen the challenge with Monaco for the future,"
Monaco president and billionaire owner Dmitry Rybolovlev said. "It's an
honor to be able to count one of the best players in the world in our team.”
Paying nearly $80 million may seem steep, but that’s about $1.5 million for
every one of the 52 league goals Falcao has scored in the past two seasons for
Atletico, so it’s a great value. Factor in his efforts in helping his team
defeat Real Madrid 2-1 on its crosstown rival's home soil to win the Copa del
Rey last week and Falcao is an outright bargain. "I'm eager to start this
challenge! I count on you support!" Falcao tweeted after the announcement.
Monaco’s big spending makes more sense in light of the club’s promotion to the
top flight in France after winning the second division this season. A team
can’t move up, not spend and get embarrassed, not when its owner is a
billionaire who has clearly run out of other ways to waste his money. The
Falcao acquisition does come with an asterisk in that multiple reports have
suggested that part of his deal with Monaco calls for the club to sell Falcao
to Real Madrid after one season. Monaco sporting director Vadim Vasilyev denied
those claims. "Is there are a clause with Real Madrid? No, if we signed
Falcao for a year, it would serve no purpose," Vasilyev said. If you say
so, V-squared……..
- Almost there, Nevada stoners. Your quest to legalize the
ganja in your home state is progressing nicely and a measure to make it happen
was passed 17-4 in a vote by the state senate Wednesday night. After the
legislature passed the bill, it now moves on to hearings in the general
assembly and if it clears that hurdle, all it needs to become law is Gov. Brian Sandoval's signature. The next
two steps in the process must happen before midnight on Monday. Sen.
Tick Segerblom, D-Las Vegas, is understandably geeked over Senate Bill 374's
progress. "It's very bipartisan. We have law enforcement on board, we have
a vast group of people so far and everyone's focused on getting this
done," Segerblom said. Of course, a bill like this can never pass without
a wet blanket or two worrying that passing it will turn everyone in his or her
state into a couch-dwelling, Pop Tart-chowing, hackey sack-playing stoner in a
knit beanie and Skechers. In this scenario, Sen. Joe Hardy, R-Boulder City, is
the buzzkill in question. Senator Square believes the dispensaries will pave
the way for potential drug abuse. "You have no clue what and how much a
person is going to use or not use and what they need and what they don't
need," Hardy lamented. The fact that Hardy is a licensed doctor
doesn’t boost his credibility in this case because dude is only trying to harsh
everyone’s buzz and everyone can see it. Besides, the bill would place plenty
of hurdles in front of existing medical users who grow their own marijuana –
specifically by removing their right to grow their own marijuana,
according to Segerblom. "We're actually in the process of drafting an
amendment where we are trying to allow those who grow to at least continue for
a couple of years," he said. Analysts project that once Nevada’s medical
pot industry is up and running, it will become $2 billion a year
business within five years and will generate $120 million a year for the state…….
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