Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Romania needs to proofread, crappy Chinese shoes injure NBAers and who will sing the James Bond theme


- First rule of James Bond theme-singing club is you do not ever let anyone know that you want to join the club before they invite you. Paloma Faith should have known better, but she couldn’t resist the pull and aura of the Bond club, saying she believes she was "born" to sing the theme. She quickly added that she believes merely expressing her interest likely took her out of the running. All of this could be a transparent publicity stunt from an artist who knows that British singer Sam Smith is the clear frontrunner for the assignment and a relative unknown like Paloma Faith has little chance of being selected anyhow. "I feel like I was born to do it," Faith said. "You're supposed to pretend that you're really cool as a cucumber and stuff just comes to you, but I'm not really that type of person, but now I've messed it for myself because I've told everyone that I would like to do it." The conversation for the job has included plenty of talk about Smith, but Ed Sheeran, Lorde and Lana Del Rey have also been bandied about – just not Paloma Faith. The next Bond film is titled “Spectre,” reviving/recycling a chapter from the franchise’s past and proving that the whole thing is about raking in the dollars at this point and not actually attempting to tread any remotely new cinematic ground. The film has a slated release date of Nov. 7 and some time in between now and then, a pop musician is going to be chosen to sing the latest forgettable rendition of a song that is becoming every bit as run-of-the-mill as the films for which it serves as a soundtrack………


- Domestic abuse has taken a turn for the pungent and unsanitary in Florida. In a development that should surprise exactly no one, the state that consistently combined outright insanity with a dose of senile and a pinch of out of touch has given us Naples resident Michael Williams and his flying bucket of human waste. Williams and his special lady friend were having a dispute recently and that dispute centered on his belief that she had been stepping out on him with someone else. He accused his girlfriend of cheating on him, an allegation she seemed to dispute, and that’s where things went haywire. See, the home where these two love birds live houses 10 people, but only one bathroom. That means a lot of long waits for the can and to solve the problem, the home’s residents keep a bucket outside to urinate and empty it later. During the argument, Williams decided that he needed to weaponize the pee at his disposal and picked up the bucket and hurled its contents at his girlfriend. He wasn’t done, though, and next took aim with some French onion dip from the kitchen. After chucking the dip at his dime, he then pushed her and grabbed her by the throat while he yelled at her, according to police reports. The evening ended with Collier County Sheriff’s deputies using more conventional weapons in the form of the handcuffs they placed on Williams before hauling him off to jail on charges of domestic violence. A criminal though he may be, give this man credit for reaching new lows when it comes to finding ways to assault his lady………


- Dallas Mavericks small forward Chandler Parsons should take a lesson from Jack Bauer and never, ever offend the Chinese. That’s doubly true when the Chinese are paying you eight figures annually to represent one of their subpar products, especially if said product is the rare one to not be laced with lead. But Parsons is willfully stepping on the wrong side of the Communist economic machine in his return to the court after missing seven games due to an ankle injury. He made his comeback sans his signature shoes, which are made by Chinese shoe company Anta. Instead of rocking Anta kicks, Parsons wore Jordan Brand sneakers with the logos covered during the Mavs' 100-93 win over the Los Angeles Lakers. He did so over worries that his signature shoes contributed to the sprain and bone bruise to his left ankle. In other words, the crappy Chinese shoes got me injured. "I just am trying to figure out if it was one of the shoes that I was wearing that bothered me," Parsons said. "I just wanted to fix them and make them stiffer.” He at least had the courtesy to meet with Anta officials during the Mavs' trip to Portland, Oregon, and the company agreed to alter his shoes to meet specifications suggested Mavs trainer Casey Smith. "The injury that I had, [Smith] was telling me how [the Anta shoes] were a little too flexible in the ankle, so I guess they said Jordan Brand had a stiffer shoe,” Parsons explained. Ouch…strike two against China. Oh, and Parsons can opt out of his shoe contract after next season, so the clock is ticking on Anta to step its shoe game up or risk loosing a (pun intended) foothold in the American market………….


- Memo to lackeys working in government offices in Romania: You’re going to want to spend extra time proofreading all printed materials going forward, especially those being presented to foreign dignitaries. Of course, that was true before a Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu presented his German counterpart, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, with a brochure featuring a map of France…filled in with the colors of the German flag. A brochure is a lame-ass gift anyhow and plenty of reason to be embarrassed, but if you’re going to give someone a crappy brochure, then it had best look like Kinko’s finest work and then some. In defense of whoever f*cked this one up and whoever failed to catch the mistake, it is easy to simply attribute France to German control because 75 years ago, Deutschland was rolling across Europe and taking over everything in its view, but those other countries did eventually regain control of their land and probably don’t enjoy reminders of once being overrun by Hitler and his hordes. Steinmeier received the gift at the end of a news conference Monday to mark 135 years of diplomatic relations and as always, nothing says, “We’ve appreciated 135 years of generally getting along with you,” quite like misappropriating land and forgetting which country is which on the map. Romania's Foreign Ministry later apologized, claiming it only received the erroneous brochure in the mail that morning with the "regrettable technical error" — the colors of the German flag contained within the map of France. Steinmeier proved why he’s a top-level diplomat, politely insisting he hadn't even noticed the gaffe. The good news for Romania is that it also celebrates 135 years of diplomacy this year with Britain and France, giving it two chances to make up for this one….or f*ck it up even further………

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