Friday, October 31, 2014

Kind Rock ruins birthdays, "Scream" becomes a TV show and Alex Fraudriguez returns


- America’s national nightmare is finally over. Thanks to the long overdue end of the Major League Baseball season Wednesday night when the San Francisco Giants rode the left arm of the tallest redneck in baseball to their third title in five years, Alex Rodriguez's one-year suspension officially ended when San Francisco Giants third baseman Pablo Sandoval caught the final out of the 2014 World Series. Madison Bumgarner’s third dominant performance of the series not only put his team atop the MLB mountain, but it also allowed A-Fraud to escape baseball's restricted list and be reinstated to the Yankees' 40-man roster. No one missed him and the Yankees could have been equally mediocre with or without a 39-year-old third baseman with declining skills and more career baggage than even the most corrupt politician. Rodriguez missed the entire 2014 season after being suspended following MLB's investigation into the Biogenesis case, continuing a career-long connection to performance-enhancing drugs and further sullying a reputation that can only dream of someday being in tatters. What has A-Fraud been doing with his free time? Well, two weeks ago he was on the field for the Dallas Cowboys-New York Giants game at Cowboys Stadium and nearly got trucked by Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo. He’s clearly not been planning a splashy re-emergence to baseball because his spokesman said at present, A-Fraud has no formal plans to address the media. As for the Yankees, they’re undoubtedly feeling apathetic toward a player with three years and $61 million remaining on his contract and the declining production not to match his lucrative deal. The team has pitched the idea of A-Fraud and his surgically repaired hips moving to first base where he can do less defensive damage, trying to mitigate the impact he can have on games……….


- Where’s the gratitude, wife of late Serbian despot Slobodan Milosevic? Mirjana Markovic, who was granted political asylum in Russia with her son Marko when he dictator husband was forced from power, should be grateful that the European Union has decided to lift a 15-year freeze on assets of the former Serbian strongman, but instead she’s b*tching about the move not mattering because the family has no property outside Serbia. Any good dictator knows how to hide his assets and squirrel them away for a day in the distant future when they and their family can pull out their hidden wealth and start living the life of luxury they squeezed out of a conquered and beaten-down people during their reign. As for the EU, it announced earlier this week that it had dropped its sanctions against Milosevic's family and several of his former political associates, saying they no longer represent "a threat to the consolidation of democracy" in Serbia. The response to the decision was not a warm one, as Mirjana Markovic reportedly laughed when she heard about it and said "neither me, nor my husband nor my children had or have any property in the EU countries." One could ask how her husband feels about the change in policy, but he died in 2006 while on trial at a United Nations war crimes tribunal. Believing Mirjana Markovic would be easier if not for the sneaking suspicion than she and her son will at some point walk into a Swiss bank in mediocre disguises and pull stacks of cash out of a safety deposit box to go with the fake passports they’re going to use to go start their new lives……….


- It’s been 18 freaking years, so it’s about time someone got around to turning one of the most overwrought, overdone horror movie franchises into an equally lame television series. Yes, “Scream” is coming to the small screen – aside from the 8,516,148 times one of the 75 editions of the movie franchise has aired on basic cable – and bringing the 1996 horror joke to a new generation. What network is pathetic enough to grasp at this particular straw? That would be MTV, which has officially approved the project from horror master Wes Craven and “Stalker” mastermind Kevin Williamson, who were both involved with the film franchise. This bad idea in the making has been in the works since the summer of 2012 and MTV has given a strong commitment of….10 episodes? That’s it? You can't give it even a 13-episode short season? Its short initial run notwithstanding, the series already has several key cast members on board, even if very few will have any idea who Willa Fitzgerald, Bex Taylor-Klaus, John Karna, and Connor Weil are. They certainly aren't Jamie Kennedy, who was the sort of top-of-the-marquee icon that anchored the original “Scream” movie. The details of the show are still in development, but there could be one very famous face from the film that is nowhere near the six-episode stint that will unfold before freefalling ratings force MTV to pull the plug on it quicker than anything this side of “Buckwild.” That would be Ghost Face, the killer from the original film. According to the company that holds Ghost Face’s rights, MTV did not want the rights for the character. That could be the first of many fatal mistakes for this soon-to-be dumpster fire……… 


- When is a surprise birthday present not really a present? When it features one of the biggest gas bags in recent musical history showing up in a Rust Belt city to party with a guy who deserves much better? The gas bag would be Kid Rock, who used to be a wife beater-wearing white rapper/faux rocker and is now a guitar-toting wannabe country singer who isn't good in either genre.  The guy who deserves much better is Toledo resident Dan McGurk. McGurk has Down Syndrome and recently celebrated his birthday in unusual fashion. Back in August, he posted a video to YouTube showing his Kid Rock shirts, posters and other memorabilia, and inviting the Detroit singer to his birthday party. McGurk’s family and friends, being the nice people they are and not wanting to let him know that he could aim so much higher with his musical fandom, joined in on the effort and urged Kid Rock to make the two-hour commute to their city to be a part of the event. Amazingly enough, there wasn’t an arena full of 20,000 people waiting to hear him perform on Monday night and so the Kid was free to show up for the party. "I've been waiting for this ...Kid Rock finally came to my birthday," McGurk said. "He came in singing happy birthday and my face light up and I as so excited to meet kid rock." Ouch. That had to be the worst rendition of “Happy Birthday” ever, but it was mitigated by gifts of signed pictures, swag and an autographed book for McGurk. "He told me if I be good to my family and all my friends at work I get free tickets to every Kid Rock concert,” McGurk added. Here’s hoping your next birthday is much better, D………

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