- It’s
about damn time. Millions of apps are in development every day and many of them
allow us to rate damn near everything in our lives except the one thing that
needs judged most: the people we know. We can rate strangers, we can rate food,
we can rate hotels, but why can't we rate those we know well enough to have
their full name and contact information? Eneter a new app called Peeple and scheduled to go live in the Apple App Store in late
November. If you’re tired of bitching about the folks in your life through normal
social media channels, then Peeple is for you. If snarky Instagram posts,
sarcastic Snapchats and fiery Facebook rants aren't getting the job done, then
embrace Peeple. Yes, it is being marketed by its makers as “a positivity app
for positive people,” but don’t be fooled. Peeple lets users rate their
friends, family members, neighbors, employees, bosses, significant others and
most anyone else they know well in life. This could seem wholly degrading and
offensive, but what could go wrong with a free app which you must be 21 and
have a Facebook account? That means you must use your real name, right? Either
that or create a fake email, use it to create a phony Facebook account and tee
off on people behind a curtain of anonymity. Users will also need to know
someone’s cell phone number to add them to Peeple’s database, so there is a
certain element of selling people out as well after they trust you well enough
to give you their number. Get beyond that, though, and you can revel in the
joys of assigning people ratings of between one and five stars just like they’re
the new Indian restaurant that opened in your neighborhood this week and gets lit
up by the power of your keyboard on Yelp. You’ll be able to write about
whatever you want, but only positive
Peeple ratings publish right away. Sadly, ratings of two stars or fewer will be
held in a private inbox for 48 hours to allow time for cooling down, which kind
of defats the purpose. “If you cannot
turn a negative into a positive the comment will go live and then you can
publicly defend yourself,” Peeple says on its website. Ditch the waiting period and let the hate fly, y’all………
- What’s
next on the Hollywood remake-a-genda? Why look here, it’s an upcoming live broadcast of the musical “Grease” with a cast that is shaping up to
be, um, underwhelming. Fox is behind this possible television dumpster fire and
it already had pop hacktress Vanessa Hudgens in a one-off performance,
but that wasn’t nearly enough. NBC has done the live musical thing with the
likes of “Peter Pan” and it went really poorly, but other networks clearly
aren't smart enough to steer clear of their own grab at the brass ring. Now,
the network has added “Call Me Maybe” sonic assassin Carly Rae Jepsen to play Frenchy in the musical and while her
relative lack of vocal power and musical skill should negate her as an option,
she did play Cinderella on Broadway in 2014. Hudgens previously said she
knows “Grease” backwards and forwards, which really isn't much of an assurance
for devoted fans of the cult classic movie, which starred John Travolta and
Olivia Newton John and has been recycled, remade, spoofed and gravy-trained for
decades. Jepsen is clearly not the last cast addition, but after releasing her
third album, “Emotion,” at the end of August, why isn't she heading out on the
road to promote it to half-empty clubs where the few people who haven't realized
how much her music sucks try to fill the room only to realize that they paid
$25 to see someone who should probably be singing on a street corner with an
empty guitar case in front of her for coin donations. Aaron Teveit is also on
board for the “Grease” musical and will play Danny Zuko, forming the third
wheel of a cast that has a lot of also-rans and not nearly enough people with
big-time talent……..
- France
is rarely thought of as any sort of threat on the international scene. That
will happen when you’ve gotten your ass kicked in every war you’ve been in for
the past two centuries and needed major help from other nations that are
actually good at fighting in order to avoid speaking German or being wiped off
the map. But maybe it’s time to give France some respect given that its lawmakers have opened the way to passage of a bill that
would allow spying on communications overseas, clearing the way for a bill Amnesty
International said is scary because the "reach of this law is so large it
gives ... intelligence agencies a blank check. The theory behind the bill is to
legalize a practice that intelligence services already use to keep tabs on
extremists who have joined jihadis in Syria and Iraq and the bill was adopted
in a first reading with few lawmakers present in a sign of smooth sailing for
the measure that critics say risks compromising fundamental rights. Hell, who
cares about compromising fundamental rights when you can trample then under the
foot of government authority using the auspices of security? Should this
debacle become law, it would allow the interception of any international
communication "sent or received" in France by both French citizens
and foreigners with the prime minister's authorization. Yes, because
politicians are never ones to abuse such powers or extend them too far in the
name of serving their own interests regardless of whether it’s the right thing
to do or not. If France is as bad as spying as it is at war, it may not be a
problem, but more freedom to spy is rarely a good thing……….
- NBA
media day season is the best. There’s nothing quite like hearing delusional
players and coaches, fresh off offseasons where they’ve worked hard, improved
their game, seemingly done everything possible to make their dream of a
championship come true….and knowing that none of their naïve optimism means a
damn thing. This year has served up a bumper crop of delusions of grandeur,
including Philadelphia 76ers rookie center Jahlil Okafor insanely claiming his
team was vying for a playoff berth despite being one of the league’s worst the
past three years and on a perennial mission to tank and acquire more high draft
picks in a never-ending rebuilding process that somehow hasn’t cost general
manager Sam Hinkie his job. But Okafor can be forgiven his lunacy because he’s
a rookie and doesn’t know any better. You can't grant the same latitude to New
York Knicks star Carmelo Anthony, whose team was actually worse than the 76ers
last season. The Knicks won a franchise-low 17 games in 2014-15 and after minor
free-agent upgrades and the drafting of Kristaps Porzingis and Jerian Grant in
the first round of the draft in June, they didn’t exactly bolster their roster
to the point of contending for an Eastern Conference title this season. Yet as
training camp opened this week, Anthony was adamant that his team is on a mission
this season. . "S---, we're competing. People might not believe that, but
we're definitely competing for that," Anthony said. "That's always
going to be the goal. Whether we get there or not depends on us and what we're
doing. That's always our big-picture goal." Goals are a funny thing when
you’re seven months removed from knee surgery, watching your championship
window slam shut and realizing there’s not a damn thing you can do about it.
But keep those standards high, ‘Melo………
No comments:
Post a Comment