Thursday, May 26, 2016

Detroit cop goes pizza delivery boy, a John Belushi documentary and Riot Watch! Spain


- Score another one for professional athlete honesty. Kansas City Royals outfielder Alex Gordon is not bringing a lot to the diamond this season and even before a recent wrist injury, he was a train wreck at the plate. Maybe landing on the 15-day disabled list after fracturing his right wrist in a collision with teammate Mike Moustakas will be beneficial for a guy who is hitting .211 with four homers and 10 RBI. For someone who has been an All-Star the last three seasons, it has to be tough to be such a letdown so far and Gordon was asked in the wake of his injury whether the time off might be a good thing for him.  "Because I've sucked so far this year?" Gordon said. "Pretty much." With one of their regular All-Stars struggling, the Royals recently lost 11 of 14 games to fall seven games behind the Chicago White Sox in the Central Division. "Obviously, I haven't played the way I've wanted to this year so far," Gordon said. "But the unfortunate part is, in baseball you always have tomorrow, and right now, I don't have that. I just got to keep my head up. And hopefully when I come back, I'll be feeling a little bit better at the plate and hopefully will help this team out a little bit more than I have so far this year." Of late, the Royals have rallied to within two games of Chicago, but Gordon hasn’t been much better. He’s no stranger to time on the disabled list, having only played 104 games during the regular season last year, in large part due to a groin strain suffered in July. He and his four Gold Gloves will now have some much-needed time off to ponder where it’s all gone so wrong………


- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! Spain has been an unusually angry place of late, with everything from royal family financial scams to the possible elimination of the traditional midday siesta causing the masses to rise up, but the most recent incidence of violence was something much different. This anger was touched off because demonstrators were lashing out in support of squatters they want to see allowed back inside a vacant bank branch they occupied for years and used as a "community center" until they were evicted earlier this week. With protesters pledging to hold five consecutive nights of demonstrations, the second night of uprisings was an inspiring sight that saw some 200 demonstrators overturn 12 street trash containers and set one alight to illuminate the Catalan night. According to police, six officers were slightly injured in their battles with rioters, but sometimes people have to take a few cuts and bruises in order for the world to enjoy the sight of dumpsters ablaze and storefronts smashed. The beauty of all of this, despite the relative chaos, is that no arrests were made. The unrest came one day after 14 officers and a detained demonstrator were injured in confrontations that ensued when police baton-charged protesters who threw rocks and set containers and vehicles ablaze. Maybe the second night of riots wasn’t quite as potent as the first, but the week isn't over yet and there’s still time to put on a great show in the name of the local, unofficial homeless community center before the week concludes………


- It seems like something that should have happened before now, but at long last, a feature-length documentary about the insane, raucous life of iconic comedian John Belushi will soon go into production. The project, to be directed by RJ Cutler and produced by John Battsek, is being cranked out by Showtime, with an assist from British channel Sky Atlantic. Producers have convinced Belushi’s widow Judith Belushi Pisano to be a part of the project and that’s a major thing because it represents the first time she's authorized or agreed to cooperate with a documentary concerning her late husband. “Belushi was one of my very first heroes. At a time when film, television, and music were undergoing tectonic shifts within American culture, he was at the center of it all,” Cutler said. “At that moment, he had the number one show on television, the number one film at the box office, and the number one record on the charts. We plan to explore his unique genius and how his creative influence is still making an impact to this moment.” Battsek said he has wanted to do the movie for years and cited Belushi as a personal hero. “We plan to assemble a deep and three-dimensional look into the life of a man of great complexity and talent who went on to become an American comedic icon,” Battsek said. Belushi famously died in 1982 at the age of 33 after an overdose of cocaine and heroin and was to have previously been depicted in a 2013 biopic produced by his close friend Dan Ackroyd and starring Emile Hirsch, but the project never materialized and now, it seems destined to be forgotten entirely………


- Are we sure that Detroit’s crippling financial woes haven't impacted the police budget and officers’ salaries to the point that cops are now “helping” pizza delivery guys complete their route and score some tip money in the process? On the surface, it looks like a simple, feel-good tale of a suburban Detroit police officer filling in after a pizza delivery driver was injured in a car crash and taking the greasy, piping-hot pie to its final destination, but let’s dig deeper. As Lincoln Park Police Cpl. Joe Sparks tells it, he responded to a call involving a collision that sent the Jet's Pizza driver to a hospital with bruises and a sore head. As he dealt with the aftermath of the crash, the officer spotted an oven bag in the wrecked car before it was towed and realized the delivery address was nearby. Having been a police officer for 16 years, his keen law enforcement spidey sense clued him in to the fact that it was “the right thing to do" because somewhere out there, "someone on the other end was waiting for their food." That someone has a name and his name is Carl Babink, who received his pizza along with a major scare. Babik, upon spotting a police officer on his doorstep, initially thought that he had done something wrong when Sparks brought his pie on the final leg of its journey. No word on what kind of tip the officer received, but given Detroit’s terrible financial situation, even a few dollars would be welcome……..

No comments: