Sunday, June 28, 2015

Cop-beating grannies, Kaiser Chiefs need help and big British Open paychecks


- If anyone reading this is really, really good at golf but for some reason has never pursued the possibility of playing the sport professionally, now would be a wonderful time to give it a shot. Yes, it will be difficult - perhaps even impossible - to snag a spot in the most prestigious golf tournament in the world on such short notice, but three weeks remain until the British Open and the prize money alone is incentive enough to attempt the impossible. The Open Championship, as the über-snooty Brits who hail it as the tournament to end all tournament call the event, starts on July 16 at St. Andrews and the man who wins it will earn a massive paycheck of $1.8 million, an increase of $275,000 from 2014. The R&A, which governs golf in Britain, announced that overall prize money for the third major of the year has soared by $1.42 million to almost $10 million. "This increase is appropriate for an event with The Open's global appeal," R&A chief executive Peter Dawson said. Said very much like an extremely arrogant, self-important man heading up an event that wrongly believes it is a cut above every other golf tournament the PGA Tour holds, Pete. For the record, Northern Irish golfer Rory McIlroy is the defending champion of the British Open and while he has struggled at times this year, he is among those considered to have a good chance to challenging for the title this year. Jordan Spieth, who has won the first two majors this season, is the odds-on favorite to cash that $1.8 million check………


- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! The Czech Republic is where it’s at this weekend thanks to hundreds of far right supporters who have rallied against immigration and Islam in the Czech Republic's second largest city Brno. Their gathering was a bit - i.e. totally reactionary - as it came while those on the other end of the continuum gathered nearby in support of immigration. The day of rage came one day after a similar demonstration in the Slovak capital of Bratislava turned awesome - i.e. violent - and underscored the rising tensions surrounding immigration Europe, even in countries that have not been significantly hit by the recent wave of asylum-seekers. The idea of immigrants circling the Czech Republic as their destination of choice on the map is funny, but that didn’t keep riot police from separating the dueling groups at this weekend’s rallies and getting pelted with objects such as beer cans and bottles by the anti-migrants protesters. Tomas Vandas, the leader of the far right Workers Party of Social Justice, spearheaded this weekend’s resistance and condemned the decision of EU leaders to relocate 40,000 migrants from Italy and Greece in Europe. Vandas demanded that these interlopers be sent back to their countries of origin, sounding very much like the insecure, paranoid and extremely jingoistic hater he is. There seem to be plenty of people willingly to angrily follow him into this battle, so let the rage bolts fly and let’s enjoy the show………


- Kaiser Chiefs need help. The British indie rockers have begun writing and demoing a new album, but the process has hit a bit of a snag as they toil away in Cornwall working on the follow-up to 2013’s ‘Education, Education, Education And War.’ The prospect of putting out the successor to a release that spent two weeks at No 1 in the United Kingdom is surely daunting and after playing at Barclaycard Presents British Summer Time iLondon's Hyde Park, frontman Ricky Wilson admitted that while progress is being made, there is a need for a helping hand to guide the process. “We’re getting to the stage, which always happens with us, where we’ve made a mess and we need an adult to come and help us out,” Wilson said. “The writing is going well. Whatever the schedule is, we’re ahead of it. On the last album, we were quite nervous without (departed drummer) Nick (Hodgson). We didn’t know if we could go on the right track without him. We just did it from the heart and that went really well. But this time we’re enjoying it a lot more, not worrying so much.” He added that on “Education,” he and his bandmates worked with a chip on their shoulder and a burning desire to prove their doubters wrong. He indicated that such a hunger is missing this time around even though there are plenty of ideas for how the album should sound. “We’ve got a load of ideas, but someone needs to explain to us what’s coming out naturally, why it’s coming out and what we’re trying to say. We never think of what we want to sound like. We just go for it and make a noise,” Wilson added. Hear that, helpful adults? Your chance to shape the next great indie album is right in front of you, so step up and produce this beast………


- Don’t mess with this granny. Phyllis Stankiewicz lives in western Massachusetts and although she might look like your ordinary elderly woman who is harmless and not much of a threat to anyone around her, police officers who mistakenly knocked on her door while responding to a report of a disturbance involving someone with a baseball bat found out that that octogenarian badass isn't afraid to throw hands when her safety, well-being and peace of mind are threatened. The sh*t hit the ceiling when officers arrived at her door to investigate the report of violence and Stankiewicz opened said front door while wielding a knife and slapped an officer - but only after helpfully telling police there was no crime there and yelling at them to leave. The cops in this case clearly made the first mistake because authorities later said the disturbance report was actually for a home a block away, but it was Stankiewicz who was charged with assault and battery on a police officer. On some level, one can understand the annoyance and - for old people, who are afraid or irritated by damn near everything - agitation on the part of this woman to see officers approaching her home and talking about some nonsense involving an assailant wielding a bat, but to go from annoyed to full-on NWA “F*ck the police” rage in a matter of seconds is mildly terrifying. But even after being arrested and charged with a serious crime, Stankiewicz wasn’t giving up the fight. She Stankiewicz pleaded not guilty a district court to and was released on her own recognizance, refusing requests for comment on her case. Hopefully those asking for her thoughts on the alleged assault were a safe distance away because you clearly would not like this woman when she’s angry………

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