- Denmark and Sweden are normally amiable Scandinavian
neighbors. They share a border, a talent for speaking flawless English and an
affinity for overpriced beer. Both are in the European Union but kept their own
national currency rather than accept the euro. Yet there is tension ‘twixt the
two and it all stems back to that one time Denmark lost the
province of Scania to Sweden more than 350 years ago. Following several
centuries of war back when both were warring sorts of peoples, Sweden took
Scania from Denmark in 1658 and the province remained under Swedish control
despite attempts by Denmark to retake it and a rebellion from local militiamen.
Now, the Danes want it back, even if it’s for a totally symbolic and greedy
purpose. Copenhagen Mayor Frank Jensen is leading the charge because he wants
the Danish capital and surrounding municipalities on both sides of the border
to promote the region internationally as "Greater Copenhagen." His
thoroughly bogus plot to have Scania as part of a metropolitan area with
Copenhagen at the center has accrued limited momentum since the two were
connected in 2000 by a bridge-and-tunnel combination across the Oresund strait
and maybe the mayor sees the link’s rising fame as the focal point in the
popular TV crime drama series "The Bridge," in which detectives from
both countries team up to investigate the murder of a woman whose body is found
right on the border, as a chance to drum up tourism interest. Of course, both
countries are awesome tvisit as is, so all of this is kind of unnecessary. "When
we add 'Greater,' we indicate that it is more than just the municipality of
Copenhagen," Jensen said. Nice try, Frankie………..
- Toronto Maple
Leafs leading scorer Phil Kessel is feeling a bit salty. It’s understandable,
really. His team is 13th in the NHL’s Eastern Conference, 15 points out of the
playoff chase with less than a quarter of the season remaining and with no hope
of qualifying for the postseason. But it’s not playing out the string in a
doomed season that has Kessel seeing red. No, he’s upset at the public
perception and allegedly overly hostile treatment of team captain Dion Phaneuf.
He believes that the defenseman takes too much heat and decided to do something
about it. "I think the way the media treats Dion in this city is
embarrassing," he said, insinuating that some of those people own Phaneuf
and apology. "Is it his fault we're losing? No. Did he build this team?
No." Throwing the front office under the bus was a nice twist, but it’s
still unclear what exactly set Kessel off. The Leafs have won just three of
their past 10 games and their 26-34-5 record is an open invitation for plenty
of heat, especially for their most prominent players. Both Phaneuf and Kessel
were reportedly shopped in the days leading up to Monday's trade deadline and
both could be on their way out of town this offseason, yet another reason for
either of them to have a massive chip on their shoulder. Athletes never take
well to having their competitiveness or leadership questioned and even more so
when they’re not doing anything on the field of play to refute those claims. Winger
Joffrey Lupul sounds nearly as testy and tweeted a message suggesting that
anyone interviewing him should get used to “No comment” as his response of
choice. Phaneuf actually took the high road in the aftermath of the drama,
refusing to take any questions. Stay classy, guys……….
- America would be a better place if people like Alaska
Republican Rep. Don Young were running it. Wait….he is one of the people
helping run this country? Then why the hell do we still have problems like gun
violence, assault, bullying and worst of all, down-and-out people with no money
and nowhere to live uglying up our streets with their unkempt presence? Because
to hear Young tell it, there is a very simple and practical solution to getting
vagrants off the streets. This old-timer is renowned for shooting off his mouth
in gruff fashion and arguably his best pearl of wisdom came this week when he
suggested that if he let loose wolves in some congressional districts, they
“wouldn’t have a homeless problem anymore.” It was yhr highlight of an uneven five-minute
exchange with Interior Secretary Sally Jewell during a House Natural Resources
Committee hearing on her agency’s budget and while those sessions are normally
a snooze fest, this one was awesome. Young may simply have a wolf fixation,
having expressed his support for taking gray wolves off the endangered species
list, and he used his wolf fetish to accuse Jewell and her department of making
decisions without consulting the states they’d affect. He also lampooned a
letter 79 members of Congress sent urging Jewell to protect the gray wolf
population and somehow segued from that rant into his homelessness solution. “How
many of you have got wolves in your district?” he asked. “None. None. Not one. They
haven’t got a damn wolf in their whole district. I’d like to introduce them in
your district. If I introduced them in your district, you wouldn’t have a
homeless problem anymore.” Done and done, congressman. It’s a wonderful point
and rather than insist it was blown out of proportion, why not extend this
visionary idea further? For example, why not release wolves in school
playgrounds across America and put an end to bullying? Or best of all, release
wolves on Capitol Hill and see if we can’t eradicate that pesky problem of
Congress being a bunch of corrupt, self-aggrandizing ass hats who never
accomplish anything meaningful in a timely fashion……….
- It’s a dream pairing for the truest of indie rock dorks
and hipsters across the world. Mumford & Sons are indie-folk darlings who
can do no wrong and veteran Brooklyn indie rockers The National have been
churning out melancholy, darkly beautiful hipster-friendly songs for years. So
when Mumford
& Sons' Ben Lovett says working with Aaron Dessner of The National help
form the core identity of his band’s third album, it sounds like a recipe for
success. That album, “Wilder Mind,” is due out May 4 and along with Dessner’s
impact on the project, the other big note so far is Lovett’s revelation that
the album does not feature the banjo, an instrument with which they have become
synonymous since they became fixtures on the music scene with their first two
albums, which dropped in 2009 and 2012, respectively. The new album was
recorded at Air Studios in London and produced by James Ford, who has done
bang-up work for Arctic Monkeys, Florence + The Machine and others. However,
many of the songs were penned at Dessner’s garage studios in Brooklyn. "We
met Aaron touring around, just on the circuit. We've been huge fans of The
National for ages. All of us, individually have got a very personal attachment
to their music,” Lovett said. “We ended up being complete super fans. After
meeting Aaron said: 'Come to my garage in Brooklyn and we'll make some music'.
It was quite innocent really." Once Mumford & Sons had their songs
ready for the studio, they headed to London to work with a producer with whom
they had never worked before. Members of the band have admitted that the new
album is a departure from their first two release, but say it will be good……..
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