- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! It’s goin’ down in the Maldives,
where everyone’s favorite overview of social dissidence ‘round the world is
getting amped up with The Man arresting three opposition leaders
and nearly 200 other people after clashes between police and protesters
demanding the resignation of the country's president and the release of a
jailed ex-leader. The fracas fired up for real when nearly the entire
opposition leadership behind Friday's anti-government protests were detained. Opposition
lawmaker Eva Abdulla confirmed that police arrested Sheik Imran, leader of the
Islamic conservative Adhaalath, or Justice Party, Ali Waheed, chairman of the
main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party, and Ameen Ibrahim, deputy leader of
Jumhooree, or the Republican Party. An already-acrimonious political atmosphere
in the Indian Ocean archipelago nation is about to get even chippier and for a
country still in its early years of democracy, that is a recipe for both drama
and disaster – maybe at the same time. To defend its indefensible actions, the Maldives
government accused Imran of inciting violence among the protesters with the aim
of overthrowing the government. The Man also refused to comment on the arrests
of the other opposition leaders, but there is no ignoring the fact that thousands
of people marched in the capital, accusing President Yameen Abdul Gayoom of
jailing former President Nasheed and others he views as political threats. In
an incredibly inspiring display of bravado, opposition activists ran through a
cordon of shield-carrying police protecting the military headquarters in Male
and clashed with police officers. In response, officers fired tear gas and
arrested 192 protesters. However, opposition groups later claimed the officers
charged the protesters without provocation. Knowing what actually happened may
be impossible, but when a great riot happens, it’s usually best not to ask
questions………..
- There are unholy unions and then there is anyone with a
shred of musical credibility flushing said cred down the crapper by working
with walking publicity stunt/pop music freak show Miley Cyrus. None of that
deterred Flaming Lips frontman and walking weirdo Wayne Coyne from recording a seven-song
album together with Hannah Montana, a fact Coyne actually humiliated himself by
confirming and then comparing to both Pink Floyd and Portishead Cyrus
previously collaborated with Flaming
Lips to musically murder The Beatles’ “A Day in the Life,” but this seven-song
monstrosity represents their most extensive – and therefore automatically their
worst – effort together. Coyne confirmed the joint album plan and
tackled the topic of how it sounds when respectable psychedelic rockers and an
outright pop hack team up. "Her studio is just a little room with a desk
and Miley was just sitting there mixing," Coyne said. "I was like, 'I
can’t picture Beyoncé doing this!’ It’s not a putdown of Beyoncé. I just don’t
see her recording her own vocals and then EQ’ing it. It’s so punk rock."
Coyne is wrong about everything else here except it being something Beyonce
Knowles would never do, but that doesn’t make it or anything else Cyrus does
punk rock in any way. The pair also record at the Flaming Lips’ Oklahoma studio
and given their penchant for partnering up, it wouldn’t be stunning to see
Coyne further bury whatever remains of his sonic soul by appearing on Cyrus’
forthcoming fourth album. As for his effort with Cyrus…..yeah. "Some of it
reminds me of Pink Floyd and Portishead,” Coyne added. Wayne, you keep Roger Waters’
name out your mouth when Hannah Montana is involved. Just stop it…………
- Colleges are businesses. Never, ever forget that fact.
They aren't some bastions of higher learning filled with and run by high-minded
individuals looking to better the minds of future generations. If that sh*t
happens, swell, but the point is to take in a lot of money to compensate
overpaid university presidents and professors who don’t give a damn because
they’re tenured and you can't fire them anyhow. In this pursuit, schools like
to do what they can to draw in the binge-drinking, sleeping-til-noon set that
will eventually put down their bongs – both beer and traditional - and take their place leading America
into the future. Hence, Wright State University’s course offering of "Zombies
& Gender in Pop Culture." Don’t pretend that this class serves a legit
purpose beyond gaining attention for the university and providing a way for
students who find actual humanities courses boring as hell to pretend they’re
studying something worthwhile, because that would be a lie. The southwest Ohio
college is allowing professor Andrea Harris to lead the charge on this one and
after a spring offering of the class filled up with “Walking Dead”-lovign
slackers, the school has decided to bring it back for another run this fall. As
one would expect, f "The Walking Dead" and movies such as "Night
of the Living Dead" are heavily involved in the class, but like a good
B.S. defender, Harris argues that the class involves serious academic analysis.
Zombie course students examine social order in the context of a zombie
apocalypse and what the popularity of zombies says about humanity's future,
which is a fancy way of asking if the world is going to hell because people are
more interested in what will take place if a totally unrealistic and impossible
scenario of the walking dead overtaking our civilization actually goes down. To
answer that question, feel free to enroll at Wright State and see if you can
get to the bottom of a mystery that really doesn’t need to be answered………..
- Golf courses and fistfights aren't normally a natural
pairing. For a game that bills itself as a gentleman’s sport, throwing hands to
settle disputes just doesn’t happen as often as it should. Yet it nearly went
down that way at
Harding Park during the pool stage of the WGC-Cadillac Match Play event. The
near-dust-up was between Keegan Bradley and Miguel Angel Jimenez near the end
of their match. The duo, neither of whom had any chance to advance to the next
round, got into a heated argument over a ruling and nearly came to blows. Bradley
trailed by one hole as they played the 18th and it was there his tee shot came
to rest near a restraining fence from which he was entitled to relief. Bradley
took a drop after his ball went into a production area, but that moved the ball
to a cart path and in turn, that earned him some more relief. An incensed
Jimenez took exception, questioning the
drop and even getting into an argument with Bradley's caddie, Steve
"Pepsi" Hale. "Don't you ever tell me to shut up,'' Hale snapped
at the Spanish golfer. Bradley stepped in to defend his caddie’s honor and
added, "You don't tell my caddie to shut up.'' Jimenez ultimately won the
hole and the match, but Bradley was still chafed about it all afterward. "I
felt like he was being very disrespectful to not only me but my caddie so I
felt like I kind of had to stand up for my boy here; me and Pepsi have been
through a lot,'' said after the round. "It's just a heat-of-the moment
thing. There's not much more I can say. It was disappointing. I'm pretty bummed
out about it.'' Next time, K., allow that bumming-outness to channel
itself into fists of fury and settle the matter in the way the good Lord
intended when he gave us hands and the desire to cave in another man’s face………
No comments:
Post a Comment