- Thank you, Missy Elliott, for answering the question no
one was asking. OK, so technically one interviewer asked Elliott about her
extended hiatus from what she liberally calls music, but beyond that there
wasn’t much of an outcry for her to return to the rap game. Elliott’s last
album, “The Cookbook,” dropped in 2005 and she hasn’t been heard from in a
musical sense in the past eight-plus years. She’s popped up here and there, but
hasn’t released much new music of her own in that time, leaving the promise of
a new album titled “Block Party” unfulfilled. An optimist might argue that it’s
rap’s version of “Chinese Democracy,” except without a fraction of the talent
Axl Rose once possessed and without Elliott ballooning to several times her
original weight while searching in vain for anyone willing to record with her
because the original members of her band hated her so much that they wanted no
part of the album. The last time Elliott dropped any new tracks at all was
2012, when she released a pair of singles titled “Triple Threat” and “Ninth
Inning.” Both were produced by hip-pop personality Timbaland and aside from
their curious sports-themed titles, there was little worth remembering about
either one of them. Now, Elliott wants the world to know that she’ll be making
a comeback…at some point. Ever the diva and drama queen, she’s trying to build
the hype by keeping her return date a secret. “I just ain't telling nobody when,"
she said, adding that her comeback must be truly special. “When I create
something, its gotta be special, and it can't just be to throw something out
there because I feel like I'm Missy. I gotta feel like what I'm giving the fans
is 100 per cent and that it's game-changing. I don't just throw out microwave
records.” The subtle dig at unidentified peers who toss out those “microwave
records” is the best part of her comment, unless of course overhyped and
underwhelming rap albums that take a decade to make are your thing………
- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! Bosnia wants in on the action,
perhaps to prove that Ukraine isn't the only nation in eastern Europe that is
royally pissed off right now. While Ukrainians attempt to overthrow their inept
government, Bosnians are rioting for a different reason. Their uprising began in a northern
Bosnian when thousands of unpaid workers took to the streets to demand their
money and the rage beautifully spread to other parts of the country Thursday.
The central theme for the movement is widespread discontent in an election year
about unemployment and rampant corruption, but the rage behind the effort is
what’s truly uplifting. The epicenter of the riots is the northern city of
Tuzla, where p Police used tear gas to temporarily disperse protesters who hurled
stones at a local government building. After the police let fly with the tear
gas canisters, protestors briefly dispersed but returned with a fury once the
cloud lifted, surrounding the building and setting fire to tires and trash in
the area. Special canine units were brought in to back up the police, but to
little avail. Officials said two dozen people were injured in the clashes and
sought medical help, mostly from the effects of the tear gas. The rage began Tuesday
in Tuzla, but has now spread its wave of defiance to Sarajevo, Zenica, Mostar
and Bihac. An ongoing dispute involving four former state-owned companies that
were privatized and later filed for bankruptcy started the Tuzla riots and led
workers in those four other cities to rise up in solidarity with the Tuzla
workers while expressing their own dissatisfaction with a nearly 40-percent
unemployment rate and politicians they accuse of being out of touch with their
needs. In Sarajevo, angry workers chucked eggs at the local government
building. Still, the best action was in Tuzla, where riots shouted insults and
threw buckets of water at the officers who passed by in full riot gear. Even
elderly folks got in on the action, banging cooking pots on their windows and
balconies. The targets of their rage are four former state-owned companies,
which included furniture and washing powder factories and employed most of the
population of Tuzla. Those companies went private and rather than honor contracts
that obliged them to invest and make them profitable, they sold the assets,
stopped paying workers and filed for bankruptcy between 2000 and 2008. Now,
their deplorable actions are coming back to haunt them……..
- Bose wants to crank it up. As the maker of high-end stereo
equipment, that’s kind of the company’s bag and in that spirit, Bose launched its
next-generation SoundLink Bluetooth speaker this week with a $299.95 price tag.
Touted as Bose's "best-performing Bluetooth speaker yet," the
SoundLink Bluetooth speaker III is promoted as having better audio performance,
a new design, longer battery life, and accessory covers in five colors. With
its Bluetooth capabilities, Bose is pushing the product as ideal for enjoying
music just about anywhere a person wants to rock out. The Soundlink III needs
only to be paired wirelessly with a smartphone, tablet or other Bluetooth
device in order to disturb everyone in your immediate vicinity with the loudest
possible version of your music of choice. Inside the SoundLink III are four
neodymium transducers and dual-opposing passive radiators, along with a new
digital signal-processing algorithm and improved electronics. All of that fancy
tech talk simply means the speaker will play music louder than its predecessor,
while still maintaining a balanced and natural sound at higher levels listening
levels. "The SoundLink III is beautifully crafted and engineered for
durability and grab-and-go use," the company said in an official release.
Elements of Bose's SoundLink Mini Bluetooth speaker inspired the overall design
for the SoundLink III, which stands 5 inches high, 10 inches wide and 2 inches
deep. It is also adorned with a built-in silicon button panel that protects
from dirt and a wraparound metal grille that resists fingerprints. Users can
add additional protection with an accessory cover in one of five bright colors
for a mere $34.95 extra……..
- The next Michael Jordan is finally here. No, not a
player with the skills and insane competitive drive to become the greatest
basketball player of all-time. That player doesn’t exist and may never exist,
but that’s nor what’s in play here. No, we’re talking about a once-great NBA
star who wants to pretend that he can walk away from basketball and play
baseball instead. Just as Jordan played in the Chicago White Sox
organization in 1994 during his first retirement from basketball, reaching the
Double-A level and biding his time while he was (allegedly) secretly banned by
NBA commissioner David Stern for gambling, retired seven-time NBA All-Star is
aiming to become a baseball player Tracy McGrady wants to try his hand at
baseball. Unlike Jordan, McGrady is by all appearances done with basketball and
also unlike MJ, he will start his baseball journey in the independent Atlantic
League. McGrady plans to try pitching for the Sugar Land Skeeters, the same
team that Roger Clemens pitched for a couple of years ago after ‘roiding his
way through a successful MLB career. A statement from the Skeeters claims it is
a "lifelong dream" of McGrady's to play baseball, something McGrady
also claims in stories he tells of giving up the sport in high school when he
transferred to an elite prep school that didn’t have a baseball team and
focused solely on basketball. "McGrady has demonstrated skill,
determination and diligence during his training program," the statement
said. "We look forward to
monitoring his progress." During his NBA career, the 34-year-old McGrady
played for several teams, including the Houston Rockets and Orlando Magic. He
last played in the NBA in the 2012-13 season. According to McGrady, he can
throw in the mid-80s and that might be good enough to get an out or two in the
independent league, but probably not enough to make him anything more than
another minor league baseball gimmick……….
- What’s all the fuss about at Wellesley College? It’s as if no one at
the women’s college has ever seen a dude on campus clad only in his underwear
and without shame. Judging by the reaction, a lifelike statue of a somnambulant
male wearing only his tighty-whities is indeed a new phenomenon for the ladies
of the all-female school in Massachusetts. The painted bronze statue was
recently installed outdoors as part of a new exhibit at the Davis Museum. The
double takes and muffled laughter began almost immediately – right after
passersby finished taking the requisite selfies with the statue. Unforauntely,
some of the uptight women of Wellesley can't enjoy a slightly disturbing look
at the out-of-shape male form in statue form and some of these squares have
signed a petition asking administrators to remove the bronze man. As one would
expect, the artist responsible for the piece is fired up that his art has
created such a visceral reaction. “I was talking with the curator of the
exhibition and my assistant this morning, and we were saying, ‘When was the
last time a work of art was talked about so much and got so much attention?’” sculptor
Tony Matelli said“I can’t remember when.” The statue — titled “Sleepwalker” —
is part of Matelli’s solo show “New Gravity,” a display full of sculptures that
explore how objects can be reversed, upended, or atomized. Angry students want
to upend this particular statue and began a petition on Change.org asking
college president H. Kim Bottomly to have “Sleepwalker” removed. Yes, the woman
who could decide this debate is named Bottomly and she will make the final call
on the bottom line here. “[T]his highly lifelike sculpture has, within just a
few hours of its outdoor installation, become a source of apprehension, fear,
and triggering thoughts regarding sexual assault for many members of our campus
community,” the petition reads. “While it may appear humorous, or
thought-provoking to some, it has already become a source of undue stress for
many Wellesley College students.” If a lifelike statue of a middle-aged dude
with no muscle tone and in an apparent state of half-consciousness stirs up all
of those images, then the real need for the ladies of Wellesley isn't a trip to
an online petition website. No, their first stop should be a psychiatrist’s
couch for some quality alone time………
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