Thursday, November 05, 2015

James Franco + The Smiths, MMAers vs. hotel intruders and Gum Wall makeovers


- Duuuuuuude. Ohio may have whiffed Tuesday on its chance to do the right thing for its resident stoners, but Mexico gets it. America’s southern neighbor threw the door open to ganja freedom this week when its supreme court ruled that growing, possessing and smoking marijuana for recreation are legal under a person's right to personal freedoms. Read that sentence again, potheads. Mexico’s foremost legal minds have declared that it is a fundamental human right to grow, carry and burn the hippie lettuce whenever and wherever they want. The caveat for this ruling is that for now, it covers only the plaintiffs in one case, a group of people wanting to form a pot club. Sure, this landmark ruling did not approve the sale or commercialization of marijuana, nor is it expected to lead to general legalization, but if one group of stoners can create a club and pretend it’s a legit organization rather than a dozen uninspired, unmotivated slackers with an affinity for Phish and “Beavis and Butthead” reruns who like to get together in someone’s back yard and pack a bowl with the best dank they can find, then why can’t stoners across Mexico do the same after this measure was approved in 4-1 vote on the five-justice panel? Big ups to the four cool judges on the panel who gave this one a thumbs-up and if he court rules the same way on five similar petitions, it would then establish the precedent to change the law and allow general recreational use. It’s a great day for lovers of the hippie lettuce across the drug-addled nation, so spark a blunt and raise it high in celebration………


- Does this sound like the ultimate self-indulgent, artsy endeavor of a flaky actor who wants to use his fame as a springboard into something he probably shouldn’t be doing on a professional level? Yes, but let James Franco have his fun. Franco has himself a band unimaginatively titled Daddy and it seems Daddy has snagged a record deal it will turn into a rather high-minded attempt at music. The band have signed a record deal and will release an album and film inspired by The Smiths and while indie rock fans and those who just like being melancholy have long loved The Smiths, recording an album “inspired” by them is a bit pompous. The title itself is ripped almost directly from Morrissey and Co., with 'Let Me Get What I Want' in reference to The Smiths' 1984 song 'Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want.' Daddy’s album will be released in 2016 via Kobalt. The band is a collaboration between Franco and multi-instrumentalist Tim O’Keefe and to really infuse that Smiths feeling into every note and chord, The Smiths bassist Andy Rourke will also feature on every track.  "We are really excited to partner with Kobalt on our upcoming Daddy album and film," Franco and O'Keefe said. "Kobalt has the right forward-thinking approach to work with a project as unique as ours, where we see our work not only existing within the music realm, but extending into the film, art space and beyond on an independent basis." Franco is something of an artsy guy, having previously written poetry influenced by The Smiths’ songs, and spoken at length about his admiration of Morrissey. To top off the overly artsy feel here, every last song on the new album will have a music video, and the 10 clips will together form an hour-long art film………..


- Seattle is a sticky place for many visitors to the famed Pike Place Market. While the famed fish tossing is the primary thing for which the market is known, those who have been there have also been able to enjoy the living, gelatinous biohazard that is the Gum Wall. The wall was started 20 years ago by people waiting in line for a late night improv show and over the years, it has grown to eight feet high and over 54 feet wide, with approximately 150 piece of gum per brick. According to Pike Place Market, an estimated one million gum wads cover the wall - or at least they did. For the first time in 20 years, the market plans to clean all the gum off the wall and here’s hoping lots of liquid nitrogen, many long-handled tools and biohazard suits are involved for whoever it unfortunate enough to be tasked with the cleaning process. It will begin early next week, when the steam-cleaning process begins. The cleaning process is expected to take multiple days due to the volume of gum on the walls and if that alone isn't enough to jump-start your gag reflex, then maybe it’s time to recalibrate. Prior to the cleanup, the market is holding a contest for Gum Wall photos and if you can snag a good one without getting too close to this disgusting mess, go for it. Padlocks on a bridge in Paris and names scrawled on the fence outside Abbey Road Studios in London it ain’t, but every city needs something and in the event space needles and world-class markets don’t do it for you, the Gum Wall may suffice. Once the wall is cleaned and is not longer a health hazard, people will be allowed to put gum on it once more. Score one for participatory art……..


- There have been several incidents around the world in recent years featuring criminals, creepers and wrongdoers having the misfortune of committing their dastardly deeds against or in the presence of a mixed martial artists. Those encounters have typically ended with said wrongdoers in a choke hold, sleeper hold or unconscious, but if more MMAers responded the way UFC light heavyweight Dan Henderson did when faced with the unexpected, the world would be a much more peaceful place. Henderson will face Vitor Belfort Saturday in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in the main event of a Fox Sports 1-televised card and as he gets ready for the bout, let’s just say that he’s not necessarily having the sort of low-key, relaxing week of preparation for which one might hope leading up to a big fight. Henderson revealed via a slightly hilarious, eerily calm and borderline creepy Instagram video that he returned to his hotel room earlier this week after dinner to find a random stranger asleep on the couch in his room. For most people, this scene would be a reason to panic, perhaps to search for the nearest vase or other blunt object in case the weirdo napping it out on your hotel room couch woke up and turned violent. For Henderson, it was a reason to roll video while he calmly called hotel security and waited for them to arrive. "Yeah, we just ate dinner in the bar downstairs," Henderson says in the footage. "We came back to the room and some guy is passed out drunk on the couch. I don't know how he got in our room." That’s a bit of an awkward situation for the hotel, which now has to explain why it let such an incident occur with a fairly high-profile guest. As for the drunk peaced out on the couch, dude can be thankful that Henderson didn’t decide to take matters into his own hands………

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