- Why is one of the most successful indie rock veterans
still active on the music scene aspiring to be like pop music hacks Taylor Swift and
Katy Perry? Stephen Malkmus, the frontman for iconic indie act Pavement and the
current ring leader for Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, has dubiously admitted
that the lyrics to his band’s new track “Lariat” are influenced by him trying
to write like Swift and Perry. He was asked about the significance of the line,
“We grew up listening to the music of the best decade ever,” and stupidly said that
the words were influenced by him “trying to write something that Taylor Swift
would write, or maybe even more Katy Perry.” As every Pavement fan reached for
a trash can or sought out a toilet in which to vomit, Malkmus explained further
a statement that never should have happened. “I was thinking in wide ways. For
me I'm a seventies guy, and sometimes when you're in your early adolescence or
when the chicks are just a little older, and kind of out of your reach, they're
the ones you sort of like at that young age. Seventies chicks and seventies
rock,” Malkmus said. Nice try, Steve. In the span of a few seconds, your words
wrecked not only your band’s new album – “Wig Out at Jagbags” – and also
invalidated the love for rising indie favorites Parquet Courts and Joanna
Gruesome that Malkmus went on to express. Even seemingly innocuous comments
about discovering new music and enjoying songs more on YouTube and not being a
fan of Twitter, Facebook or music streaming services such as Spotify suddenly
became downright offensive when they are uttered by a man who aspires to write
like two of the most fabricated pop creations in recent memory……….
- Well done, anonymous South African diamond mine worker. You
discovered one
of the rarest and most coveted in the world with a possible price tag of tens
of millions of dollars and for that, you get nothing beyond your normal
paycheck. The unidentified mine worker found the 29.6-carat blue diamond at a
South African mine near Pretoria owned by Petra Diamonds. While small
enough to fit into the palm of a hand, it is one of the largest found at the Cullinan
mine since the famed Cullinan Diamond was found in 1905 - described as the
largest rough gem diamond ever recovered and weighing 3,106 carats. That
growing list includes a 25.5-carat Cullinan blue diamond, found in 2013 and
sold for $16.9 million, and a diamond found in 2008, known as the Star of Josephine,
which was sold for $9.49 million. Petra Diamonds CEO Johan Dippenaar is already
hyping up the new find, suggesting it could best the price of many massive
diamonds found at the mine before it. "By some margin ... this is probably
the most significant stone we've ever, in terms of blue stones,
recovered," Dippenaar said. "The stones in the last year or so are
selling well above $2 million per carat. That's not my quote, that's updates in
the market.” Although the specifics of the diamond are still being fleshed out,
some experts have speculated that it could fetch between $15 million and $20
million at auction. The Cullinan mine has yielded diamonds that have been
displayed at London's Buckingham Palace and are regarded as among the rarest
and most valuable in the world. The most famous of the lot, the 1905 Cullinan
Diamond, has been cut into two stones - the First Star of Africa and the Second
Star of Africa - that form part of Britain's Crown Jewels held in the Tower of
London. Dippenaar said the company would decide what to do with the new diamond
in the next week………
- The calendar changes, but the bizarre and ironically
hilarious sight of two of baseball’s highest-spending teams b*tching at one
another over their overpaying ways never does. The Boston Red Sox are Major
League Baseball’s defending champions and the archrival New York Yankees are
eager to rebound after missing the playoffs, leading the Bronx Bombers to throw
nearly $500 million at new players
this winter. It’s akin to the winter after the 2008 season, when a failed run
at a title led the Yankees to sign CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Mark Teixeira.
With that trio in tow, New York rebounded to win the World Series in 2009 and
they are clearly hoping that inking Jacoby Ellsbury, Brian McCann, Carlos
Beltran and Japanese import Masahiro Tanaka to half a billion dollars in
contracts will repeat that feat. Just don’t expect Red Sox CEO Larry Lucchino
to be impressed. "It's like 'Back To The Future,' is my sense," Lucchino
said. "I've seen this movie before. Anything that can be done that
increases the intensity of the rivalry, as this certainly does, I think is
positive -- as long as it doesn't go so far as to give them the
advantage." Not to be outdone, Lucchino insisted he and fellow Sox owners
John W. Henry and Tom Werner are just as committed to winning as the Yankees.
It rings true, given that the Red Sox have spent just as freely as the Yankees
in recent years. Winning two titles in the past decade provides more leeway for
a franchise that went eight decades without one. Lucchino noted that the
Dodgers are following the same game plan as the Yankees, but was adamant that
his team would not follow suit. He can say that now, but if the Red Sox fall to
the middle of the American League pack next season and need a jolt, don’t be
stunned if they start handing out deals like the seven-year, $142 million
contract they doled out to failed free-agent signing Carl Crawford in 2010 or
the seven-year, $154 million deal they gave to Adrian Gonzalez around the same
time……..
- Michigan Governor Rick Snyder wants your poor, your tired, your
huddled masses…and he wants them with a green card in their hand. The governor
of the state unfortunate enough to include Detroit unveiled a proposal this
week that calls for the U.S. government to allocate 50,000 special visas over
the next five years to lure highly skilled immigrants to live and work in the
bankrupt Motor City. Snyder smartly realizes that people who don’t speak
English and have never seen Detroit are the most likely to move there, but he
needs a big assist from the federal government to make it happen. Americans are
fleeing the D at a breakneck pace – or being murdered and buried/eaten by their
fellow residents – and Snyder has watched helplessly as the city’s population
has tumbled to about 700,000 from a peak of 1.8 million in 1950. Issuing 50,000
EB-2 visas to individuals with advanced degrees and exceptional skills in
fields like the auto industry, information technology, healthcare and life
sciences is a drastic step, but at this point anything should be considered
when it comes to fixing Detroit. Snyder admitted that there is no precedent for
special visas to be issued for a specific geographic area, but he drew
comparisons to a current program that grants visas to physicians who agree to
work in under-served areas. So far, the Obama administration hasn’t officially
responded to the plan, but anything touching on immigration reform is
politically radioactive these days. Snyder plans to discuss his proposal
further with administration officials and noted that "it's really early in
the process.” "It's really taking up the offer of the federal government
that they want to help more," Snyder said. "Again, they made it clear
they don't have dollar resources to necessarily help, but isn't this a great
way that doesn't involve large-scale financial contributions from the federal
government. Yes, but throwing massive quantities of money at lost causes is the
federal government’s favorite hobby……….
- The Food and Drug Administration has to know you cannot
force morons to stop being morons, but the agency is giving it a shot anyhow. The
FDA is proposing long-awaited changes to the nutrition labels on the back of
food packaging and hoping to clear up common misconceptions in the process.
Yes, the current food labels have been in existence for the past 20 years, but
people are idiots and the labels remain confusing for many. Because consumers are
paying more attention to what they eat and growing wary of consuming too many
refined sugars and saturated fats, the FDA wants to make sure they have easier
reading when they scour food labels in the aisles of their local grocery store.
In 2008, the FDA conducted a phone survey to see how many Americans use food
labels regularly. Of the 2,500 participants in the survey, 38 percent cited front-of-package
claims like “all natural,” “cholesterol free” and “high fiber” as a factor in
which products they choose. Therefore, if these claims are misleading, people
are banking on erroneous information and not eating the healthy grub they think
they’ve shoveled into their pie holes. The only change to the labels since they
first appeared in 1993 was the 2006 addition of a line listing trans fats. Concrete
changes to the nutrition labels are expected to appear in a FDA proposal in
March so clueless consumers know exactly what they are eating and how much.
Calories are expected to be more prominently featured in a bigger font
(Wingdings, hopefully) and the calories from fat section will be dropped from
the informational panel. Clarifying serving size is another area likely to be
addressed and manufacturers will also be required to share the amount of added
sugar and the percentage of whole wheat in each product. No word on how the FDA
plans to universally increase the IQ of those expected to read and understand
the new labels………
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