Sunday, December 06, 2015

Bud Weisser + Budweiser, NFL officiating f*ck-ups and the "Trainspotting" sequel


- Twenty years later, no one involved in the cult favorite movie “Trainspotting” has found anything better to do. Two decades after the dark drama hit theaters, a sequel will hit theaters some time in 2017, with filming to begin next spring. Sony’s TriStar Pictures owns the rights to the film and director Danny Boyle and screenwriter John Hodge return alongside all of the original title's principal cast. That cast includes Ewan McGregor, Jonny Lee Miller, Ewen Bremner and Robert Carlyle, some of whom have carved out respectable careers, but all of whom haven’t become big enough stars to pass on the sequel. Boyle has already admitted that he’s worried about making the sequel because he knows he will be mercilessly ripped if the movie is bad. "We're going up to Scotland very early and we're going to do a week's workshop up in Edinburgh working on the script,” Boyle said recently. “We're filming in May and June of next year. Obviously it's worrying because people will kill us if we made a bad job of it. I will get absolutely crucified. But you have to thrive on that potential danger within it and if it feeds into it, you might get a decent film out of it, you know." One goal, according to the director, is to complete filming in time to release the project in 2016 in order to commemorate the original film’s 20th anniversary. Details about the sequel’s plot are beginning to leak out, but news that the entire core cast from the original is the biggest development to date……..


- Duuuuude, Canada's new Liberal government is looking pretty legit, brah. New Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Liberal Party swept into power earlier this year and are wasting no time trying to live up to their name. Gov. Gen. David Johnston, outlining the party’s agenda as Parliament resumes after the Oct. 19 election, delivered a promise to legalize marijuana as well as regulate the recreational use of the sticky icky. Trudeau has been pushing plans to take pot mainstream since becoming leader of the Liberal Party in 2013, but this is the first time the national government has said it will push in that direction while still restricting access to chron. According to the prime minister, Canadians would benefit from analyzing the experiences of Colorado and Washington state, which recently legalized pot and have yet to descend into the depths of anarchy. In Johnston’s speech, he also expanded on five themes that were central to the Liberals' election victory. Ending the near-decade-long reign of the Conservation Party has the Liberal Party thinking big on its promise to cut the tax rate for middle-income earners and provide a more generous child benefit to those who need it while hiking taxes by 1 percent on the wealthiest denim enthusiasts, er, Canadians. Trudeau is definitely thinking liberal in a big way after getting back from the global climate conference in Paris and also wants to continue working with provinces to put a price on carbon, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and introduce a new environmental assessment process. Still, saying you’re going to green light ganja is always going to grab the most attention even if those who would be happiest about the news are too stoned to actually pay attention……….


- Dean Blandino has a difficult job. No, not overseeing the NFL’s officials and making sure that games are officiated properly. Mean Dean’s truly challenging gig is trying to put a pleasant scent on the steaming, stinking pile of monkey turds that his officials submit on a weekly basis as they blunder, stumble and fumble their way through missed calls, botched explanations and misinterpretations of rules. Blandino claimed officiating crews are averaging 4.3 mistakes in roughly 160 total plays per game this season and a dubious face mask penalty that extended Thursday night's game between the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions by one play and allowed the Packers an untimed down on which they ultimately won the game was the latest black eye for the league. Yet like any good corner office-dwelling executive stooge, Blandino has his guys’ backs even though it’s abundantly clear that they’re sticking knives into the backs of teams whose games they officiate by failing to do their job correctly. The VP argued that officials have made what he called "a very small number of mistakes" and said the mistake rate is completely normal. "There is a perception now that officiating is not very good at the moment," Blandino said.  "But the reality is that the officiating is very good." Oh, OK then. You and the league’s multimedia department crank out a two-minute video where you assure the world that all is well despite rampant evidence to the contrary and we’ll all believe you. Hey Dean-O, the 2015 season has featured near-weekly instances of questionable calls and you might argue that it isn’t any worse than in the past …. but the reality is that it’s not good. Trying to make the case that fans and media simply notice the mistakes more due to advances in technology for broadcasting and watching games is weak and a predictable example of you grasping at the nearest straw in order to make your case, but just don’t expect anyone to actually buy what you’re selling…….


- Some crimes were just meant to be. Fate, poor name choices by parents and a scary combination of opportunity and low intelligence all collide and with them comes an occurrence that was all but unavoidable. That’s precisely what happened this week when the Budweiser brewery in St. Louis, Missouri received an illegal visit from a man whose actions may have been wrong, but whose name was oh, so right. Nineteen-year-old Bud Weisser was cited for trespassing and resisting arrest after he was found in a secured area of the brewery early in the evening. According to police, they were called to the scene when brewery security officers told Weisser to leave and he resisted arrest. Left unsaid was how Weisser got into the restricted area in the first place and whether he was fueled up on any product samples from the brewery at the time of his crime. At least his lack of intelligence didn’t extend to assaulting any officers and he was taken into police custody, then issued summonses for trespassing and resisting arrest. It’s a single bad night for a guy who might have a lot more of them in store if this incident is any indication of his personal intelligence, discipline and internal moral compass. If nothing else, maybe he can parlay his name into a free drink or two in a couple of years when he’s legally allowed to further dilute his subpar intelligence with a little liquid courage……….

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