- Hey San Antonio, can we interest you in a winless NFL
franchise whose recent history is steeped in ineptitude and who haven’t been a
viable postseason contender in more than a decade? Think that one over because Oakland
Raiders owner Mark Davis is looking to bring his circus sideshow of a squad to
your town. Davis met with a delegation of officials from San Antonio on Friday
to talk about a potential move for the franchise and better still, he got San
Antonio to hop on a plane to come talk to him. Former San Antonio Mayor Henry
Cisneros and other city officials traveled to the Bay Area for the meeting,
four months after Davis visited is team’s potential new home city. ''We're
going to present San Antonio's strengths and assets in the most persuasive way
possible,'' Cisneros said. ''We have a very, very good opportunity to set it
forth in a way the Raiders can digest.'' The obvious point to make is that NFL teams make a sh*t-load
of money no matter where they’re based (see, Green Bay, Wisc. or Buffalo, N.Y.
for evidence). The counter point is that the money goes largely to the league
and its owners, with a much smaller chunk making its way to anyone who doesn’t
own a private jet or two vacation homes in the Caribbean. In other words, San
Antonio should prepare to shell out a lot of money to build a new stadium
should the Raiders move there and bide their time playing in the Alamo Dome
while their shiny new football palace was built. The Raiders’ lease at the
Oakland Coliseum is up at the end of the current season and Davis claims his
first choice is to remain in Oakland. He is, however, willing to play a
high-stakes game of pitting the city against new suitors in his quest for a new
stadium and see who will allow him to make the most money possible………..
- And now, it’s time to hear from the other side. For months
now, the campaign for Spain’s northeastern region of Catalonia to
break free and become an independent nation has been heating up. Protests have
been staged, fiery speeches have been given and ultimatums have been thrown
down. The national government has insisted that there will be no secession and
that any vote for such a move would be illegal, but the government has been the
primary voice against Catalan independence….until now. An organization that
opposes plans by the region hold an informal independence poll has held
protests in several cities across Spain and the biggest such display took place
in Madrid, where a relatively modest crowd of several hundred people meekly listened
to Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa read out a statement describing the poll
as disrespectful of "the rule of law or the true will of the people."
The opposition group, called Libres e Iguales (Free and Equal) includes
politicians, intellectuals injecting their thoughtful input into the mix. The
impact of the anti-independence movement hasn’t been overwhelming and protests
like the one in Madrid or another in the Catalan city of Girona proceeded
peacefully, which is clearly no way to create or sustain a revolution. Thankfully,
a demonstration in Barcelona had some minor violence when pro- and
anti-consultation supporters threw hands and forced police to intervene. Sadly,
this has been the apex of the rage so far and this entire scenario is becoming a
real yawner………
- NOFX lead singer Fat Mike is not a guy you want to mess with
mid-show. We’re not talking about aiming a laser pointer at his face, hurling a
half-empty beer can at him mid-song or heckling him from the mosh pit, although
based on what went down at a show Down Under this week, it might be high time
to rethink all of those actions as well. Fat Mike was doing his thing, playing
quality punk rock during a gig at the Enmore Theatre in Sydney when a beered-up
fan wearing a bucket hat jumped on stage and decided to pretend he and the lead
singer were cool by putting his arm around Fat Mike’s neck. That would have
been offensive under the best of circumstances, but the singer had told the
crowd earlier in the show he was suffering from neck pain. Having his pain
compounded by the drunken antics of some random dude not sober enough to
realize what a colossal ass he was being, Fat Mike responded with a spinning
forearm to the fan’s face and once that rendered the poor sod stage-bound on
his ass, Fat Mike mixed in a punt to the head while the fan was down. The
entire display unfolded so quickly and violently that it’s worth watching the
video several times just to enjoy it. The only thing the fan, named Alex,
deserves credit for is tweeting Fat Mike after the show to apologize, admit
that he had been drinking heavily and therefore drunkenly forgot the singer's
neck was hurting. It doesn’t excuse to ass-hatted behavior, but credit for
owning it and letting the world know who you are so proper mockery can ensue……..
- If God truly are wherever the faithful assemble, than the
Almighty is about to make a prolonged stop at the Athens Fantasy World and Chelsea’s Gentleman’s
Club. A church in the area near the now-closed strip club has a vision to take
a place one occupied by drug-addled skanks grinding on filthy brass poles and
turn it into a place where God-fearing worshippers can kneel before the Lord. Soon
to be gone are the platforms, the bar, the waterbeds and the glorified hookers
in G-strings….just as soon as the unnamed church can raise the money to make
the changes it envisions. The club was once a place of debauchery on Baxter
Street, including being an alleged brothel. The non-denominational church that has
bought the property has just 50 regular members, so turning around a place that
has seen multiple arrests over the years for prostitution, rape, drugs,
stabbings and counterfeit bills will take time. “Obviously it was a place for
the sex industry,” church member Mary Redman said. “Sometimes people get on
paths and they maybe don’t even know why they’re doing what they’re doing. We’re
not here to judge anyone or to pass judgment on what happened here. Maybe it
was a place where people came because they just didn’t know where else to go.” Redman and her husband David believe the
club is an ideal space for such a transformation in a community that has seen
some hard times of late. The church estimates that it will take in excess of $1
million to fully overhaul the building an unless each of its members are able
to scratch checks for $20,000 or so, that’s going to mean a whole lot of
fundraising and even more faith………
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