- Will Bob Dylan ruin his musical credibility by giving away
his music? Just kidding, even if the ass hats who tried to argue that U2
torched their legacy by funneling their new album into iTunes users’ music
collections free of charge. Dylan has already done plenty to infuriate, offend
and antagonize music fans all across the sonic spectrum, so who gives a damn if
he wants to give
away copies of his new album to 50,000 senior citizens? It isn't quite Dylan
switching from acoustic to electric at Newport back in 1965, but it’s still
interesting that the iconic singer-songwriter will hand out 50,000 copes of
“Shadows in the Night” to AARP readers, which could be both kind and very cruel
if he insists that the album be made available only through digital download.
Hell, even giving out CDs of the project is borderline elder abuse to people
who long for the days of the eight track player, but the old folks should love
the actual content of the album. It will be comprised entirely of Frank Sinatra
covers and is due to be released on February 3 via Columbia Records. The
10-track album has Dylan’s take on tracks such as “Full Moon And Empty Arms,” “Stay
With Me” and “What I’ll Do.” As part of the promotional process for the album,
Dylan talked about his life outside of music and what might have happened if he
hadn't become one of the musical icons of a century. “If I had to do it all
over again, I'd be a schoolteacher," he said, noting that he
"probably" would have taught Roman history or theology. He also
insisted he doesn’t see his versions of Sinatra’s songs as covers, which is a
creative way to spin having a covers album as your 36th studio album and first
in three years……….
- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! Do NOT piss off ethnic
Albanians in Kosovo unless you want sh*t to get real, real fast. No one knows
that better than Serbian Minister Aleksandar Jablanovic, whose comments
minimizing Serbia's role in the 1998-99 Kosovo war have threatened to
kick-start a revolution aimed at ousting him from power. Thousands of those
aforementioned Albanians are protesting the minority Serb politician's denial
of war crimes against them and has them angrily demanding the government take
over managing the country's crucial mining complex. These maniacs waved
Albanian flags and banners Saturday in Pristina, the capital, and insisted that
Jablanovic be tossed out of office. His comments incensed families of some
1,000 ethnic Albanians who are still missing and that definitely makes since
because, you know, their loved ones are likely dead via sinister means and
their remains may never be recovered. The uproar is strong enough to draw some
12,000 protestors to speak out against Jablanovic and his governing coalition
together with former Kosovo guerrillas who fought a separatist war against
Serbia. The timing for this uprising couldn’t be better, as it merges nicely
with the ire of more than 400 miners from Kosovo's mining complex Trepca who
want the government to take over the administration of the Yugoslav-era complex
to stop it from being liquidated. Any time you can roll multiple causes into a
bigger movement and get more folks involved in raging against the machine, you
have to feel good about what you’re doing…………
- Their season may have been something of a nightmare so
farm but the University of Illinois men’s basketball team is a dream come true
for at least one of its members. Ryan
Schmidt began the season as a team manager, i.e. the guy who makes sure the
laundry gets done, the balls are properly inflated for practice and gets coffee
for the coaches in the office. At least for now, he’s upgraded to a much better
position as a member of the roster for the Fighting Illini. With the team beset
by a slew of injuries, coach John Groce has added Schmidt to the roster after
four seasons of focusing on towels and water bottles. The 6-foot senior guard
wore No. 14 on Saturday as Illinois faced Minnesota and it was a dream scenario
for him. "I never really expected to suit up for the orange and
blue," Schmidt said. "My room's decked out in Illini gear."
Groce decided to add Schmidt to the roster to ensure the team had enough bodies
for practice and game days and said he was happy to give the manager a chance
to be on the bench. "Ryan's a great kid and has been here the entire time
I've been here," Groce said. "Obviously played in high school, and
was a really good high school player." The accounting major won't see any
court time barring a blowout or multiple major in-game injuries, but after Illinois
lost starting point guard Tracy Abrams for the season with a torn ACL, leading
scorer and rebounder Rayvonte Rice with a broken hand and guard Aaron Cosby
with a torn retina, that latter scenario isn't out of the question. No one is
going to enjoy this development more than Schmidt and his parents, at least
when they finally accept that it’s happening. "Neither of them believed
me," Schmidt said. "It took a little bit of explaining." A
little bit of explaining and a whole lot of time picking up sweaty towels on
the bench………..
- Be more selective about whose purse you try to thieve. A
Portland, Oregon criminal thought he had an easy heist when he spotted 53-year-old
grandmother Tammy Elliott exiting a Fred Meyer store late in the morning. The
unidentified man zeroed in on Elliott, grabbed her purse and began walking out
of the store. Reacting as quickly as an older woman with a surgically repaired
hip would allow, Elliott began a slow-speed pursuit that saw her trail the man
into the parking lot as he jumped into his car and tried to get away.
Channeling her inner Jason Statham, she jumped on the hood and hung on for dear
life. "I was yelling at him to give me back my purse," she said. "I
just wanted my pictures — there wasn't any money in the purse.” Regaining
photos of her children and grandchildren drove Elliott to hang on for as long
as it took and the thief eventually tossed the purse out the window and kept
the wallet. His determined pursuer dismounted from the car and allowed the
thief to drive away, but not before seeing enough to give the police a
description of a man in his 30s with short brown hair, about 5 feet 9, wearing
dark clothing and driving a small, two-door car. Being able to hang on through
the thief flipping on his windshield wipers, rapidly accelerating and stopping
and swerving back and forth has to earn Elliott some major badass points with
her family and if she’s not already on the poster promoting the parts used for
the hip replacement surgery she underwent, then that had best change soon………
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