Saturday, April 04, 2015

NHL playoff paranoia, Iranian women + soccer and Rihanna accused of plagiarism


- No freaking way. Noted pop hack and “artist” who has a team of superstar songwriters pen many of the tracks she sings so pathetically Rihanna has been accused of plagiarizing a rapper on her new single. It’s astonishing to think that someone who doesn’t seem to have an original or insightful lyric in her body would ever be fingered for daring to lift someone else’s work without proper credit or compensation, but Texas rapper Just Brittany is claiming that the pop singer borrowed heavily from her similarly named 2014 track “Betta Have My Money.” Rihanna, if she did plagiarize the song, didn’t do much work to obscure her thievery, titling her version of the song “Bitch Better Have My Money.” . Just Brittany took to Twitter to claim that Rihanna had "jacked" her song, but the veracity of her claim was quickly thrown into doubt by the fact that she later deleted the tweet. Maybe the entire claim was merely a thinly veiled publicity stunt that Just Brittany – whoever the hell she is – knew would get her a lot of attention even if it were totally bogus. Either way, “Bitch Better Have My Money'” was produced by Kanye West, alongside Roc Nation producer Deputy, Travis Scott and Wonda Gurl. It comes out as Rihanna is preparing to release her forthcoming eighth studio album, which she claimed would be a "soulful" new album that will sound "timeless." "I've made a lot of songs that are just really big songs...they just blow up,” Rihanna said. "Not that they weren't real music, but I just wanted to focus on things that felt real, that felt soulful, that felt forever.” The thing is, all of her music is timeless, as in there is never a time when you want to listen to it……..


- Now THIS is how you open a New York City racetrack casino. Forget the normal pomp and circumstance of balloons, streamers, signs and banners that you typically find adorning such events because those trappings of ceremony are both lame and tired. What’s in – or at least should be in – from here on out is the chair-flinging, glass-shattering fight that marked and legend-ized (new word alert!) the grand opening of the Fat Tuesday daiquiri bar at the Resorts World Casino at the Aqueduct track in Queens. Yes, it’s Queens and therefore not exactly the sort of upscale, trendy Manhattan happening one might expect, but this night was more epic than anything on the Upper West Side thanks in large part to the three people who were arrested or ticketed on disorderly conduct charges and several other people were injured in the brawl. According to police, officers arrived just before midnight to find about two dozen people elbow-deep in fights in the casino's food court. While many people brawled and proceeded to shatter glasses over each other’s heads and hurled the nice new chairs in the food court to take the brawl to a new level, most in attendance chose to post video showing people punching each other and lifting rope-line stanchions over their heads in an all-out effort to weaponize anything not firmly affixed to the floor. The damage was extensive, but the publicity the establishment received from this should put it on the radar for anyone looking for a good time in the greater Manhattan area. No word on whether any of the evening’s scheduled events were paid attention to, but at this point it could not matter less………


- Bad news, women of Iran. One of your country’s senior Iranian sports officials says the country's authorities have partially lifted a ban on women attending men's sports matches and while on the surface this might seem like a positive and a sign that social progress is being made – or at least no longer impeded to the same extent it was in recent months, let’s take a deeper look at what this truly means. Deputy Sports Minister Abdolhamid Ahmadi announced that Iran's State Security Council has approved a plan by his ministry to allow women and families to attend some sports events, but was cryptic about which events women could attend and when. Sadly, it almost certainly means that women will have a chance to be exposed to soccer and lets face it, soccer is not something anyone needs more of in their life. Ahmadi cautioned that not all matches or stadiums would allow women but offered no details about whether the change would actually accommodate FIFA President Sepp Blatter’s plea to Iran earlier this year to end the ban on women watching soccer in stadiums. Women have been banned from attending men's sports matches since the 1979 revolution that brought hard-line Islamic clerics to power, but in recent years the country has allowed foreign women to attend matches of their national teams. Maybe Iranian women will be mistakenly excited about the chance to attend soccer matches until they actually endure 120 minutes of scoreless “drama” on the pitch, filling two halves and two goal-free overtimes before a 0-0 draw brings their day at the stadium to a close. Ladies of Iran, you’ve been warned……..


- Not that there was going to be the proverbial fight at the bat rack to order single-game playoff tickets for the Tampa Bay Lightning this postseason, but the line just got a little shorter. The ‘Ning, currently third in the NHL’s Eastern Conference and assured of a spot in the playoffs, are looking to ensure that the loud and enthusiastic masses of their postseason foes aren't able to find their way inside Amalie Arena. Perhaps cognizant of the fact that loud contingents of fans of teams in Chicago, Montreal, Winnipeg and Detroit have attended Lightning games this season and of the fact that Boston and New York fans routinely turn home games for baseball’s Tampa Bay Rays into their own personal playground, the Lightning are dropping a ban on single-game ticket purchases for anyone residing outside the state of Florida. The team says it wants to "create a home atmosphere" during the postseason and so any tickets purchased with a credit card not attached to a Florida address will be cancelled and issued a refund without notice. Spokesman Bill Wickett said the team doesn't "feel the need to apologize" for limiting the number of visiting team fans in the arena and he’s right because anyone who wants seats will find a way to get them regardless of this insipid ass-hattedness. Someone from Chicago, Boston, New York or whatever city provides the Lightning’s first-round foe will simply buy tickets through an online marketplace from an enterprising Florida resident who purchased them with the full intention of flipping them for a profit because they don’t give a damn about hockey or who attends game. Oh, and only Lightning team attire will be allowed in the Chase Club section during playoff games, suggesting that the front office is both paranoid and not really confident in the team’s ability to win games unless the conditions are as optimal as possible in the home side’s favor. Way to focus on what really matters, guys……..

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