Sunday, January 24, 2016

Quentin Tarantino's universe, a parking bill of rights and overdue rent on Hitler's bunker


- There is literally no one who followed Cliff Robinson’s basketball career who didn’t see this coming. Robinson was affectionately knowing as Uncle Cliffy during his career, but anyone who paid attention knew that dude could just as easily have been called Uncle Spliffy because he had a definite affection for ganja. He was twice suspended for marijuana use during his NBA career and now that he’s well on the other side of his playing days, he’s chasing down his clear destiny with a new business venture under that Uncle Spliffy moniker. Yes, the former UConn star has registered the name for his upcoming career in the marijuana business. He has the domain name locked down in and in true stoner fashion, the site is almost entirely incomplete. It features a marijuana leaf and a promise that the rest of the site is "Coming Soon,” a promise that friends and family members of stoners know all too well. Robinson, along with a group of investors, will open a grow operation in Portland, Oregon, and this outfit wants to have its product on the market by the end of the year. Those who know know that Oregon legalized recreational use of marijuana in July, becoming one of four states, plus the District of Columbia, to jump into the battle for America’s official stoner haven. As of October, recreational pot could be purchased from medical marijuana dispensaries, with retail stores to come later this year. Robinson is promoting his new business by any means possible, including serving as the keynote speaker at next month's Cannabis Collaborative Conference………


- Dammit, who forgot to pay the rent on Adolf Hitler’s bunker? It’s one of those things that you always assume someone else took care of because dammit, it’s the rent, it’s due every month and it’s not like all of you can forget it. Yet it appears that’s precisely what happened and it’s why a Polish court ruled that the state was right to terminate the lease of Hitler's World War II bunker to a private company because that company  failed to pay rent or upgrade it as a tourist attraction. Forestry authorities in Gerloz, in northeastern Poland, terminated the lease of Hitler's Wolf's Lair in March, but the company that owns the site protested the decision despite the fact that it owes the state some 1.2 million zlotys ($290,000). Judge Wieslaw Kasprzyk of the provincial court in Olsztyn ruled that the termination of the agreement was justified, to which the private company immediately replied that it would appeal. In the meantime, forestry authorities will move on as if that appeal didn’t exist and seek other partners to finance their plan of maintaining the historic site and turning it into a real tourist attraction. Chief local forester Zenon Piotrowicz announced the new direction for the plan to care for the system of some 200 Nazi bunkers and military barracks hidden in deep woods. Yes, the more famous bunker was in Berlin, but the Wolf's Lair served as Hitler's chief quarters from 1941-44, when the area was in Germany. It was there that Col. Claus Stauffenberg set the stage for one of the most over-the-top Tom Cruise performances ever with his failed assassination attempt on Hitler by  on July 20, 1944, for which he was executed. Stauffenberg’s story became the 2009 Hollywood movie "Valkyrie" starring Cruise and Kenneth Branagh and turned the bunkers into a major tourist attraction visited by some 200,000 history enthusiasts annually………..


- The world has long wondered what the hell Quentin Tarantino is thinking. Not that the quirky cinema savant is ever going to make sense, but maybe this will help a bit. “The Hateful Eight” director has confirmed long-standing speculation that the characters from his films exist in the same universe. The world already knew that “Inglorious Basterds” character Donnie Donowitz was the son of “True Romance character” Lee Donowitz and “Reservoir Dogs” key man Vic Vega was the brother of “Pulp Fiction” bumbling stooge Vincent Vega. Tarantino has often used his movies to provide teasers for future projects, including the memorable scene in “Pulp Fiction in which  Mia (Uma Thurman) describes a pilot episode of a TV show which features the same plot and characters as “Kill Bill,” a movie Tarantino went on to make nine years later. “There is actually two separate universes,” the director said of the world in which his characters exist.  “There is the realer than real universe, alright, and all the characters inhabit that one. But then there's this movie universe. So From Dusk Till Dawn, Kill Bill, they all take place in this special movie universe. So when all the characters of Reservoir Dogs or Pulp Fiction, when they go to the movies, Kill Bill is what they go to see. From Dusk Till Dawn is what they see.” To further play out the tease and build some more buzz for his latest project, Tarantino also implied that a character from “The Hateful Eight” is related to one of his older characters and suggested that fans of his past work could dig in and figure out the mystery. It’s all quite a tangled web of cinematic intrigue and for fanboys who love Tarantino’s bizarre style and sense of humor, it’s another layer to enjoy………..


- In this crazy world of ours, someone needs to stand up and fight for the everyman. Sacramento Democratic Assemblyman Mike Gatto is that someone, at least for residents of one neighborhood in California’s capital city. Gatto knows that some shady business is going on in his ‘hood, as evidenced by city parking enforcement records showing 93 street cleaning tickets written for the three-block stretch of P street, totaling $4,882.50, for the period July 1 and Nov. 20, 2013. Knowing that people hate parking tickets and some can’t afford the fines their questionable parking tactics incur, the assemblyman is proposing a parking bill of rights that would prevent California cities and counties from writing street cleaning tickets after the streets have already been cleaned. Gatto believes drivers shouldn’t be ticketed if cities aren’t actually cleaning the streets and say his bill will also outlaw tickets at broken parking meters, keep cities from hiring private companies to act as “parking bounty hunters” and make it illegal for valets to use public parking spots. “Occasionally the state needs to step in and remind our local governments that parking a vehicle should be an efficient practice, and not another big hassle designed to separate motorists from their money,” Gatto said of his proposal. “These simple and practical policy changes will make life easier for Californians who just want to park their cars and go about their business.” Sacramento has faced this issue before, but following a 2014 investigation, the city refused to dismiss the parking tickets written when the streets weren’t being cleaned and so far hasn’t commented on Gatto’s idea……….

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