Thursday, August 14, 2014

Poland's pissed at Russia, don't f*ck with Raiders fans and a "Veronica Mars" online miniseries


- The “Veronica Mars” movie was a curious and successful endeavor that raised more than double its original budget via a Kickstarter campaign, so it shouldn’t surprise anyone that the cult favorite franchise still has life left in it. After a three-season run that ended abruptly in 2007, creator Rob Thomas and most of the cast worked to revive the franchise in movie form, with their efforts culminating in March with a feature film that showed in a limited number of theaters and was released via online media marketplaces the same day. The movie was well-received and answered many questions left hanging when the show came to a screeching halt despite having many stories left to tell. Based on that success, Thomas is hard as work on “Play It Again, Dick,” a web series revolving around Ryan Hansen’s fan favorite “Veronica Mars” character, Dick Casablancas, that was announced in January. The nebulous series will exist somewhere between reality and the fictional world created by the show and movie and Thomas laid it out in a mildly confusing way. “The web series will have more in common with Party Down tonally, but it will be about Ryan Hansen, or at least a version of Ryan Hansen, deciding to capitalize on the current Veronica Mars heat to get his own series on the air. He’ll try to pull his actor pals into the venture with varying degrees of success,” Thomas said. However, he has gone silent of late in regards to the project. All eight of its episodes have been filmed and it has leaked that Hansen  — who plays Dick Casablancas and a fictionalized version of himself — will have series star Kristen Bell and several other cast members in a story line built around a fictional “Veronica Mars” spinoff that Hansen has “written” as a star vehicle for himself titled “Play It Again, Dick.” The premise might be a bit confusing, but given Thomas’ track record, it’s worth watching……….


- Long live the glorification of being fine with who you are and not feeling the need to aim for something better.  Sure, it’s nice when people don’t feel shame about who they are or how they look, but there is something to be said for being able to look in the mirror, admit that you’re not in the sort of physical condition you could be in any work toward that improved self without it being a huge ordeal. Instead, too many elect to lament the societal pressure place on them by images of folks thinner and healthier and lash back by claiming that they should be wholly accepted for who they are without needing to improve. Such is the thinking behind the #fatkini campaign on Facebook and Instagram, a campaign in which women who are, um, plus-sized post photos of themselves in swimsuits with the aforementioned hashtag. Billed as a push for empowerment, it is the brainchild of Virgie Tovar, a Bay Area fat-discrimination lecturer, and plus-sized fashion blogger Gabi Fresh. “Fat girls are told that we’re not supposed to wear bathing suits, that we’re supposed to cover up and wear as much clothing as possible,” Tovar said. Fresh began using the term on her blog two years ago, telling women of all sizes to “find something that makes you feel gorgeous.” It only recently caught on and as Tovar sees it, there’s good reason for that fact. “I think we’ve hit this tipping point where I feel like people are done. There’s only so much shame and self loathing that one human being can handle,” Tovar said. “The Fatkini is this movement toward refusing to do that saying, ‘I’m alive right now. I can wear this bathing suit right now and look good.’” Ultimately, anyone has the right to post (legal) images of their choosing on their social media feed and no one should be mocked or derided because of their appearance, but the #fatkini push walks a dangerous line between acceptance and telling ladies who need to lose a few pounds that they shouldn’t bother because who they are is awesome……….


- Don’t f*ck with Oakland Raiders fans. Most people – NFL fans, players and owners as well as those outside the football world – know this to be true and abide by this simple principle. The freaks in Skeletor masks, spiked shoulder pads and face paint come to Raiders games packing weapons, court-ordered ankle-based monitoring devices and a willingness to fight anyone who even thinks about disrespecting them or their team, so it’s best to avoid eye contact and keep moving when in their vicinity. That message clearly did not reach Dallas Cowboys cornerback B.W. Webb prior to the commencement of Tuesday's joint practice between his team and the Raiders in Oxnard, Calif. A melee broke out when Cowboys cornerback Morris Claiborne slammed Raiders tight end Mychal Rivera to the turf by the sideline, just a few yards from a section of the crowd that was predominantly Raiders fans. That was a problem because the teams had a verbal agreement that there would be no tackling at the practice, but Claiborne said he decided to take down Rivera after the tight end lowered his shoulder. In the aftermath of the hit, Claiborne walked over Rivera and celebrated his tackle. Oakland receiver Greg Little took exception and got in Claiborne’s face, spurring dozens of Dallas defenders and Oakland offensive players to jump into the fight just feet from the barriers behind which Raiders fans were standing. From there, sh*t got real as an unidentified Raiders fan hit Webb in the back twice with his hand and a third time with a helmet, spurring Webb to swing back before he was pulled away. "Two teams going after it and happened to be some fans, too," Webb said. "Hey man, it happened. I wasn't expecting that. But whoever jumped on my back, I had to get them off. Hey, you got to let them know, man, the only thing protecting you is this fence." It’s a bold sentiment, but given the rap sheet of the average Raiders fan, not a wise one……….


- Who isn't pissed at Russia right now? Ukraine isn't really a fan, the United States is breathing all manner of threats against Vladimir Putin and his crew and now, Poland is peeved at the communist hell hole formerly known as the U.S.S.R. It all started with controversial comments by nationalist politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who said Poland and the Baltics would be "wiped out" in the event of a war between Russia and the West. Those remarks were destined to go over poorly in Poland and every other country allegedly poised for extinction in the event Russia’s overzealous ambitions led it into a conflict with Western powers. Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski was the man to step up and demand answers for the offensive comments and announced that he had summoned the Russian ambassador to protest Zhirinovsky, the leader of the Liberal-Democratic Party and a deputy speaker of the parliament's lower house. Speaking on state television Zhirinovsky insisted "they will be wiped out” when talking about Poland and the Baltic states, pronouncing all of the aforementioned nations to be “doomed” in the event of such a war. The meeting between Sikorski and the Russian ambassador took place earlier this week, but neither man addressed what was said behind closed doors. One would imagine that it wasn’t too substantial because the original remarks came from an extremist kook with a history of making outrageous comments, mainly to cater to his nationalistic supporters. Once Poland settles its beef, it will then be time for another nation to raise its own stink over something Russia has said or done lately………

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