- Kasabian has itself a big day. The British
indie rockers were announced as the headliners for this year’s Glastonbury
festival and shortly thereafter, they did a little bit of graffiti work in east London. Tom Meighan and
Serge Pizzorno – wearing overalls with the words 'malted milk' printed on the
back – showed up in the British capital and painted a wall with the curious
message “48:13.” The white wall was bare before they showed up, but Meighan and
Pizzorno scrawled on it with pink paint and then added stenciled numbers in
black. No one is quite sure what they were up to, but the building is located
on some prime real estate next to a nail bar on Dalston's Kingsland Road. It belongs
to artist and fashion designer Aitor Throup, who designed the cover artwork for
the band’s 2011 “Velociraptor!” album and directed the video for the track
“Switchblade Smiles.” Throup seems
to be in on whatever this stunt was and explained his close ties with the band.
"Kasabian are my brothers. I met Tom when he wore the England football
shirt I designed onstage,” he said. “We've worked together since then [2010]
and I've done set design for them at Reading and Leeds Festival and the Olympic
Park show (in 2013).” After observing the graffiti, he gave the art mixed
results. "I don't think Tom's ever picked up a paintbrush in his life. He
has good graffiti skills, but Serge was a bit better with a roller,” Throup
added. When pressed on the meaning of the artwork, he was evasive and said only
that it was "part of something bigger.” As far as publicity stunts for
bands go, this is one of the more fun and interesting ones, even if the payoff
likely won't match up to the hype…….
- Are fast food workers still angry? Well, is french fry
grease hot or are double cheeseburgers with bacon fatty? Months after walkouts
and protests in which fast food workers nationwide demanded a living wage and
complained that they couldn’t survive on the minimum-wage drivel that their
employer shovels their way, it appears that at least some of those who angrily
ranted into local television cameras and vowed never to back down are still at
it. The latest instance came Thursday in Atlanta, where fast food workers and
their supporters hit the streets to rage against what they self-righteously
declared to be a corrupt system. The
demonstration took place inside a McDonald's on Moreland Avenue, with protesters
marching in the restaurant holding signs that read: “Fair Wage, It's Good
Business.” In order to kick things up another notch, one protestor brought a bullhorn
with her and used it to talk some junk to a Ronald McDonald look-a-like in the
crowd. Talking junk to a clown in white makeup and a yellow jumpsuit is
typically a sign your life has taken a horrible turn for the worst, but the
allegations against the McDonald’s in question are nearly as ugly as this whole
scene. The enraged employees accuse managers of stealing their money by forcing
them to work off the clock and not paying them overtime. They're ugly charges
reminiscent of a Filipino sweatshop making Nike shoes, but Atlanta police
showed up to put an end to the mini-uprising and dispersed protestors without
much of a fight. Maybe next time, someone needs to empty out the fry grease and
carry it with them during the protest so the gathering can take on the feel of
a medieval revolt when boiling oil is poured down the castle walls at
attackers. In this case, it will have to be the slide on the McDonald’s
playground or the walls of the ball pit, but the point will be made………
- Norway may seem like a tranquil, placid place full of fjords,
moose, premium seafood and people rocking wool sweaters….and it is, but don’t
assume that means the Norwegians will just roll over and take it when the world
around them tries to screw them over. The Nordic nation has some valuable
natural resources within its borders and protecting those resources – fish
cakes and all – is a top priority for a nation that is smart enough to maintain
its own currency and relative financial independence from the topsy-turvy
European Union. As its next step toward long-term fiscal security, Norway is
reportedly considering excluding foreign oil and coal companies from its $860
billion sovereign wealth fund, which manages profits from the country's own
fossil fuel industry. Finance Minister Siv Jensen announced Friday that she is
taking the thoroughly bureaucratic step of appointing a panel to assess the
question on environmental grounds. That panel will supposedly report back to
the government in November, which sounds like an awfully quick turnaround for
any governmental entity. Panel or not, the move underscores Norway’s burgeoning
ambition to be a leader in global efforts to fight climate change while
continuing to hunt for oil and gas in its waters. That may seem a bit
hypocritical, but the dichotomy is so much easier to stomach when coming from
such a nice nation that annually ranks among the world’s happiest countries. Jensen
also suggested eliminating an ethics council that decides which companies
should be excluded from the oil fund on ethical grounds and posited that Norway's
central bank should take over that responsibility. There’s nothing like a
little jingoism to stir up the political scene in any part of the world………
- Retract claws, ladies of the LPGA Tour. While the initial response to some scantily
clad skank who just happens to be engaged to a top player on the PGA Tour
appearing on the cover of Golf Digest instead of you, it’s time for reality
check. Yes, Paulina Gretzky's
presence in an alluring pose on the cover of an upcoming issue of the magazine
might seem like an insult to all of the hard work you put in, but let’s look
closer. Gretzky is known for slutty Instagram photos and other trampy behavior
and that’s probably why she is also the fiancée of PGA Tour pro Dustin Johnson.
She happens to be the daughter of former NHL great Wayne Gretzky and she also
looks damn good in g a white bikini top and matching leggings on the cover of
that magazine. On the opposite side of the ledger, no one knows or cares who
any of the players on the LPGA Tour are and while some of them are very
attractive and could look just as good on the cover of a magazine, no one is
paying attention to their skills on the course and they shouldn’t pretend
otherwise. "It's frustrating for female golfers," said Stacy Lewis,
the No. 3-ranked player in the world. "It's the state of where we've
always been. We don't get the respect for being the golfers we are. Obviously,
Golf Digest is trying to sell magazines, but at the same time you like to see a
little respect for the women's game." You might, but you’re the only ones.
Everyone who doesn’t play on the tour or derive a living from it could not care
less. Besides, anyone paying attention knew this cover was a virtual certainty.
The last two women featured on the Golf Digest cover were Holly Sonders last
May and model Kate Upton, who was shot with Arnold Palmer for the December
issue. No LPGA player has graced the cover since Lorena Ochoa in 2008 and
that’s not a coincidence. Predictably, other female golfers stepped up in
support of Lewis. "It's Golf Digest, it's not Sports Illustrated's
swimsuit issue," LPGA icon Juli Inkster lamented. The magazine defended
its cover by saying in an online preview that Gretzky "ranks at the high
end of the golf celebrity scene today, and she has a compelling story to tell.
She also might get some new people interested in the game." Umm, not
really. No one is getting interested in golf because they see a hot chick on
the cover of a golf magazine, not unless Gretzky is going to caddie for them
dressed that way when they play their first round……….
- Is there a supervolcano in
Yellowstone National Park or not? Here’s hoping, because national parks are
honestly a bit boring without some unique natural phenomenon to liven them up and
a supervolcano is just the trick for a snoozefest like the ‘Stone. The rumors
of such an entity have been sweeping the Internet ever since viral videos of
buffalo fleeing a certain area of the park surfaced a few weeks back. The
mini-panic left park officials rushing to combat the mistruths and urban
legends so visitors and locals don’t fly into a full-fledged panic. All of the
drama began after a 4.8 magnitude earthquake hit the park on March 30. No one
is denying that seismic activity has been increasing lately or that the
earthquake was the largest to hit the park since 1980. That created a perfect
storm when combined with a declining number of buffalo living in the part –
down 25 percent this winter alone – and the videos that have shown up on
various websites depicting the massive beasts fleeing the park like horrified
bystanders trying to get out of the area any time Pitbull starts “rapping.” The
most dramatic rumor swirling is that the quake could lead to the eruption
of a supervolcano in Yellowstone. That wild theory is fueled by the
reality that Yellowstone National Park sits on the Yellowstone Caldera, the
crater of a massive supervolcano that scientists recently discovered is a lot
larger than they previously thought. However, park officials deny claims that the
video was actually taken before the large quake and that the buffalo are
fleeing towards the center of the Caldera, not away from it. Their argument is
that it is perfectly normal for animals to be running around looking for food
at this time of the year. Should this supervolcano erupt, it could cover half
of North America in ash. That would be a quality vacation story to tell
for Yellowstone visitors……….
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