- Say what you will about Michael Phelps, Simone Biles, the
U.S. men’s basketball team or others embodying the spirit of striving for excellence
at the Rio Olympics…but if you really want to see excellence in action, the
Olympic memory you will cherish is the one created Sunday by Byambarenchin
Bayarra and one of his fellow Mongolian wrestling coaches. These two understand
what the Games are all about and what they’re about is fighting like hell for
the victory and if the result doesn’t go your way, you unleash all manner of
rage up to and including shedding your clothes and subjecting the world to your
portly, cherubic physique in protest. The display of passion came on the final
game of the Games as Mongolia's Mandakhnaran Ganzorig suffered a heartbreaking
defeat in a bronze medal wrestling match. With about seven seconds left in the
match, Ganzorig began running around the mat, waving his arms in front of
Navruzov in celebration of his impending victory. The final buzzer sounded, he
fell to the mat in celebration and his coaches covered him in the Mongolian
flag. From there, sh*t went south. Officials penalized Ganzorig for his
late-match antics, calling him for fleeing the hold by not engaging in the
match's final seconds. A penalty point tied the score 7-7 and when the
Mongolians protested the call and lost, their wrestler ended up on the losing
end of an 8-7 decision. "There was a problem with the refereeing,"
Bayarra said. "The Mongolian wrestler won 7-6 and he lost because of this
[judges' decision]. This is the only time in history of wrestling with point
penalty." It is also the first time anyone can remember that a coach -
with Ganzorig rolling around the mat in frustration - tearing off his shirt,
storming the judges’ table and slamming his hands on the mat before tearing his
shirt off, flexing and roaring loudly. He was joined by the second coach, who
rushed in, pulled his shirt off and capped it off by dropping trou. In the end,
the Mongolian coaches refused to leave the mat until they were escorted by the
Brazilian National Public Security Force. It was an Olympic moment no one will
soon forget……..
- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! There’s nothing like an
agriculturally-based uprising to make the world hearken back to a kinder,
simpler and cruder time when there were no social networks to stage a revolt
and no tear gas canisters for police to fire in response. A reminder of those
good ol’ days of riots came to kick off this week by French farmers occupying
an intersection outside the headquarters of dairy giant Lactalis and pleading
for someone to lend them a hand as they struggle to compete with cheaper
countries in Europe's single market. France has had a year of tragedies,
terrorist attacks and trauma and this certainly isn't on par with those
incidents, but the simple reality is that a glut of milk and diving dairy
prices are forcing French farms to sell below cost. Farmers' unions are demanding
that big companies pay more for milk than current market prices as a sort of
capitalist charity act to keep French agriculture alive. This week’s protest in
the western France city of Laval is targeting Lactalis, which produces Parmalat
cheeses, President butter and many other dairy products on European supermarket
shelves. Lactalis, through spokesman Michel Nalet, argues that the problem is
overproduction and says that other European producers accept lower prices for
their milk, so it doesn't make financial sense for their company to pay French
producers more. From a distant view, it looks a lot like another case of a
corporate titan versus the little guy, of the industrial new world slowly
squeezing out the old way of doing business………
- You may or may not know who FKA Twigs is, but she would
like your help - in some very vague, general form. FKA Twigs, a.k.a. Tahliah
Debrett Barnett, needs some help for an upcoming mystery project and the singer
decided to turn to Facebook and Twitter to find people to assist in her
efforts. A few months ago, she released a new single called 'Good To Love,’ her
first piece of new music since 2015's 'M3LL155X' EP, and has hinted at a
collaboration with Oneohtrix Point Never by sharing a mysterious video clip on
Instagram, identical to one shared by the experimental producer. What she’s up
to now is unclear, but it could be exciting…or bizarre….or both. "i'm
looking for performers of all genres to audition for a project i'm making in
london this october. no talent or style is too extreme,” Barnett wrote in her
post. "all performers must be based or be able to work in the uk. please
email a recent cv, headshot and reel link to FKAtwigsaudition@gmail.com.
looking forward to hearing from you!" Opening the door to the aspiring,
questionably talented masses is always a dicey proposition, but amongst the
scores of hacks and crackpots, perhaps Barnett will find a few gems whose
skills are a good fit for whatever weirdness she has in mind. She recently debuted
three new songs during her performance at a Russian musical festival. The songs’
titles haven’t been confirmed, but maybe one of them will be a part of whatever
this mystery project turns out to be………
- The question isn't whether the owner of a naked Donald
Trump statue will claim his or her, um, work of…art within the 30 days the city
of Cleveland has given this person to come and pick up what has to be a very
small-handed statue. The statue of the Republican presidential nominee was
briefly, retina-scarringly and cruelly displayed last week in front of a
Cleveland Heights bank, but it was soon removed not for what should be the
obvious reasons of indecency and public cruelty, but because a city code that
prohibits placing items and equipment on public property. Police say the owner
of the statue could face a fine for their offense, but this is actually part of
a disturbing trend. Life-size naked Trump statues also made appearances in New
York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Seattle, so Cleveland was merely the
latest place to be terrorized. It’s sad that this is happening at a time when
the real Donald Trump is already causing far too much trauma and suffering across
the United States, but the person behind the statues is actually activist
collective called INDECLINE, which has spoken out against Trump and his
candidacy. Anything that keeps this demagogue, blowhard, windbag of a human
traffic cone from ending up in the Oval Office is a positive, but there’s no
need to cause emotional scarring and post-traumatic stress disorder in
thousands of people by forcing them to
view these statues………
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