Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Colombian power problems, self-shooting UFCers and Long Island garbage racism


- Again? And again? And again? Yet another “King Kong” movie is on the way to theaters as Hollywood continues its fascination with making and remaking and remaking the franchise that began in 1933 and has spanned numerous crappy reincarnations in the past eight-plus decades. Legendary Pictures will lead the way on the latest retelling of the story and the studio has reportedly set its sights on “Attack the Block” director Joe Cornish to helm the project. If Cornish takes the assignment, he will follow in the steps of Peter Jackson, who directed the last King Kong movie in 2005 and relied heavily on the performance talents of Andy Serkis to make a movie that was equal parts regrettable and forgettable. Legendary Pictures used the recent Comic-Con convention in San Diego to launch the promotional buzz for the film, showing fans a teaser video shot from a first person point of view soaring high above dark and stormy seas towards Skull Island where King Kong rises up to his full height and roars. “Previous works have touched on the island, but staying and exploring this mysterious and dangerous place offers the opportunity to take audiences deeper inside this rich world with a style and scope that parallels other Legendary productions,” the studio said in a statement. That is some grade-A promotional B.S. right there, admitting there have been a ton of King Kong movies but saying you’ll somehow find a way to reinvent the story in a way no one else has takes some intestinal fortitude. Then again, Legendary Pictures has a habit of redoing tired sci-fi/action franchises, having done its own version of “Godzilla” a few years ago. The studio is reportedly working towards a November 2016 release date for “King Kong,” a timeline that will seem more realistic when the movie has a director………


- Garbage racism….it’s a real thing. The town of Brentwood, located on Long Island, believes it may be the target of this heinous action and Assemblyman Philip Ramos is leading the charge against it. Ramos and many residents are accusing state waste management officials of trucking garbage from the Hamptons and other east end towns to their hamlet and holding it in their town until the powers that be can figure out how to send it to a landfill out of state. The official story is that trash from certain areas has been hauled into Brentwood for months and has piled up there because of a shortage of trucks and more recently, because rail cars were diverted to New Jersey instead of Long Island. Locals have argued that their community should never have been forced to accept another community’s trash. As the garbage has piled up, residents have complained about the smell and the dust coming from the dump site. The trucking company, Elm Global Logistics, has not commented publicly on the issue and given that there isn't anything it could say that would make people feel better, that might be wise. “Keep it in the Hamptons temporarily and then send it somewhere else. This community is tired of taking it on the chin,” Ramos said. “We are prepared to engage in civil disobedience. The other day I laid down on the road right in front of the trucks together with other supporters over here of this cause.” The charges of garbage racism is being levied because Brentwood is a heavily minority community and therefore, anything that negative that happens to it can be blamed on race…or so the theory goes. Rail carrier CSX was supposed to send rail cars to ship the garbage to a Kentucky landfill, but those real cars were delayed and so the garbage continued to linger………..



- This was predictable. A UFC fighter who was just hired by the world’s biggest mixed-martial arts league won't be making his return to a UFC octagon because he was involved in a firearm-related accident in his home. UFC and weapons go together like Tapout shirts and steroids, so it makes perfect sense that UFC welterweight Joe Riggs nearly sent himself shuffling off this mortal coil when his pistol accidentally went off while he was cleaning it. According to police in Arizona, Riggs was cleaning the gun when it went off and he was hospitalized for injuries to his hand and thigh. "We were made aware that newly-signed UFC competitor Joe Riggs was involved in an unfortunate accident last night," the UFC said in an official statement. "While cleaning his permitted firearm, the gun discharged, injuring his hand and upper thigh. Riggs was transported to a nearby hospital in Arizona where is being treated by physicians. We wish Joe a speedy recovery." The self-snipering came at a decidedly inconvenient time for Riggs (40-14), who just re-signed with the UFC and was scheduled to fight Paulo Thiago at a UFC Fight Night event Sept. 13 in Brasilia, Brazil. He was last with the organization in 2006 and has since bounced around with lesser ones, including Strikeforce and Bellator MMA. His luck began what proved to be a temporary turn in November when he won the Bellator MMA reality series "Fight Master," culminating in a unanimous decision
against Mike Bronzoulis. Armed with a six-fight win streak and a shiny new pistol, he was ready to step back into a UFC octagon, but that will have to wait now that he has been removed from his scheduled bout with Thiago as the UFC searches for a replacement………


- Someone just needs to step up and take blame for a major power outage at Colombia’s main port of Buenaventura. Colombian officials are blaming rebels for the outage and rebels are denying the charges, playing their part in an annoying dance that doesn’t actually solve anyone’s problems. Adm. Pablo Romero commands the naval force based in the Pacific port and he’s the one who levied the charges that a rebel attack downed a key transmission tower. As Romero tells it, officials also believe that the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia caused a similar attack in November that knocked out power to the city for three days. Having actual proof of responsibility for either attack would be great, but so far none of that fancy proof has emerged. What no one can question is the fact that power company spokeswoman Patricia Hernandez says electricity to the city of 400,000 was lost at 8 p.m., ruining countless dinner plans and plans for a fun evening watching a badly dubbed Spanish-speaking episode or two of “Friends.” The government quickly went to work restoring power, but many residents went for an extended period of time without power. The army remained on site during the repair process to protect workers, furthering the allusion that the rebels really are out there, waiting to pounce. Colombia's government has been holding peace talks with the rebels since 2012, but the half-century-old conflict rages on and on………

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