- New
music is hard to come by for many artists, who take their time recording new
albums and often delay releases for any number of creative reasons. Having a
good artist who not only commits to releasing new tracks, but promises to do so
on a regular, frequent basis is a minor musical miracle and that makes it
exciting news that A$AP Rocky has announced a new
music strategy called Wavy Wednesdays. Starting last week, the rapper shared
two new songs via Twitter - one from new A$AP Mob member Playboi Carti and one
from A$AP Ferg in 'L.Y.B.B.' He tagged each one with the words Wavy Wednesday and after that slightly cryptic
debut effort, A$AP has clarified has future plans for the idea. A fan asked him
when the masses will get to hear new music and during the question-and-answer
session, the rapper replied, "WE PUTTING OUT NEW MUSIC EVERY
WEDNESDAYS....WAVY WEDNESDAY'S." Grammatically stunted as that response
might be, it offers hip-hop fans a nice mid-week bonus going forward and while
rap tends to see mix tapes and diss tracks dropped on the regular, keeping the
new music scene fresher than it is in other genres, A$AP has cranked out enough
good tunes that having something fresh from him on a weekly basis is a digital
gift that will keep on giving……….
- Riot
Watch! Riot Watch! Uprisings are always great and revolts are to be
appreciated, but it doesn’t have the same feel if those riots are government-sanctioned demonstrations. Governments
typically don’t promote revolts because they’re typically the targets of such
actions, but it’s a rare day in Burundi, where the government took the unusual
step of encouraging its citizens to rise up against neighboring Rwanda, whom it
accuses of supporting a rebellion to topple Burundi's president. Thousands of
sheep, er, compliant Burundians participated in the demonstrations, which
underscored the worsening relations between the Central African neighbors since
Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza was re-elected for a disputed third term. Like
many African despots who refuse to leave office and either rewrite laws or
simply ignore existing ones to remain in power, Nkurunziza has stayed in office
under controversial circumstances and as a result, Burundi has been rocked by violent street
protests since Nkurunziza's April announcement that he would seek another term.
Some 400 people have died since then in violent street protests,
assassinations, attacks by a rebel group and a failed coup attempt, making
Burundi one of the most exciting political shows on the planet for a few
months. Not everyone is a fan of that show, as more than 200,000 Burundians
have fled to neighboring countries, mostly to Rwanda. In light of those
numbers, Burundi is accusing Rwanda of training and arming rebels in the
refugee population and in response, Rwanda said it plans to relocate 75,000
Burundian refugees to other countries……….
- Will
they wear them? It’s great that this spring training, 20 big league pitchers will
receive newly designed protective headwear designed to protect their melons from
the impact of line drives hit back at them, but unless those pitchers are
willing to look weird in the name of safety, this collaboration between Major
League Baseball and the MLB Players Association won't do any good. A hybrid of
a cap and a helmet" is how MLB vice president Patrick Houlihan described
the customized hats that weigh 10 to 12 ounces and feature a carbon fiber shell
and roughly resemble sun visors with extended forehead and temple coverage and
single earflaps like batting helmets. The protective gadgets have an average
thickness of about 0.7 inches that is thicket in places most susceptible to
catastrophic injury, according to Boombang, the company hired to design and
produce the them. The company conducted research is says showed that line
drives to the side of the head -- a pitcher's most vulnerable area -- typically
strike right-handers on the right and lefties on the left because of
follow-through position. That led Boombang to make the hats righty- and
lefty-specific and in hopeful comments, Houlihan and MLBPA assistant general
counsel Bob Lenaghan said they are optimistic the pitchers will embrace the
partial head covering supplemented with nylon New Era performance skull caps.
The headgear has been in development since May 2014 and included input from
pitchers, including the dozen who have been hit in the head by line drives
since September 2012. Tampa Bay's Alex Cobb, who sustained a mild concussion
and experienced vertigo for two months after he was hit in the head in 2013,
tried a prototype last year and said it both felt and looked good……….
- Whatcom County sounds like a made-up place or possibly a
new Netflix-produced sitcom about a tech-loving nerd community, but it turns
out to be neither and is instead a place where animal rights kooks are trying
to stop a high school fundraiser in which people play basketball while riding
donkeys. Ferndale High School is ground zero for a contentious battle between the
Whatcom Humane Society and the Ferndale FFA club. The club, over the objections
of the WHS, held its basketball game featuring various local dignitaries
sitting atop uncooperative beasts of burden, careening around the court as
unfortunate volunteers are tasked with keeping the floor clean of donkey
droppings. The unoriginal argument made by the WHS is that it's cruel to play donkey basketball because
of its irrational fears about the donkeys being pushed, pulled, kicked or
punched by riders. Yes, punching donkeys is apparently a default behavior for a
person who is unfamiliar with riding one of these animals if that animal
doesn’t cooperate in helping them win a meaningless exhibition basketball game.
Caught in the middle of this battle was Donkey Sports Inc. owner Bruce Wick,
who provides the donkeys for the annual event. Wick said he has never had
animal rights groups show up to protest at any other games and insisted that the
donkeys are well trained and riders aren't allowed to pull or jerk them. Amazingly,
the powers that be did not buckle to the will of the animal rights maniacs and
cancel the game, so all the WHS accomplished here is to bring more attention
and free publicity to an event it believes perpetrates a heinous and
unforgivable evil on some of God’s most docile and gentle creatures walking
this earth of ours……..
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