- It’s a forgotten album virtually no one is wondering about
the fate of, but thanks to Green Day for finally ‘splaining what happened to
its lost album, “Cigarettes and Valentines.” The unreleased project was written
and recorded in 2003 and originally slated to be the follow-up to 2000’s “Warning,”
but it ultimately got lost in the musical ether because wen the album was
nearly finished, the recordings were stolen from the studio. As a result, Green
Day wrote and released “American Idiot,” which has gotten a lot of mileage and
given rise to a musical of the same name. Eventually, rough mixes of the “Cigarettes”
tracks were recovered and the record’s title track was recorded and later
released as part of the live album “Awesome As Fuck.” Those who have heard
parts of “Cigarettes” say it is an up-tempo effort hailing back to early Green
Day albums - back when they were a legit punk band and not a bunch of
mainstream rock conformists - like “Kerplunk” and “Insomniac.” Conspiracy theory
posits that the album was released as ‘Money Money 2020’ by side-project The
Network, a claim frontman Billie Joe Armstrong has repeatedly denied. “It’s
pretty much in the vault right now,” Armstrong said of the lost album. “There
was the one song, ‘Cigarettes and Valentines,’ that we brought out live, I
don’t know, we’ll see if any of that stuff ends up seeing the light of day.” Bassist
Mike Dirnt echoed those sentiments, noting that the group wants to move ahead
rather than dwell on what used to be. “There’s always a lot in the vault, but
we tend to look forward rather than reaching back,” Dirnt said. And of course,
there’s always time to “leak” that album should the band entirely fall off the
musical map and need something to generate a little publicity at any point in
the distant future……..
- Pollution is a problem in certain parts of California, but
this probably isn't the way to go about cleaning it up. It was a scene straight
out of a straight-to-DVD movie in the streets around San Jose International
Airport in Santa Clara, California, as thousands of gallons of fire retardant
spilled out in a malfunction of a fire suppression system at a private hangar, creating
a giant blob of foam that filled the 60-foot-high airport hangar before oozing
out into the streets around 2 p.m. "Something triggered the (fire alarm)
system to go off," said Capt. Mitch Matlow of the San Jose Fire
Department, which responded to the scene. "As far as I know, there never
was a fire, there never was a fuel leak. But no one can go inside the building
because the foam is still inside the building." According to Signature
Flight Support, which operates the building, the foam first filled the entire
hanger before bursting through doors, windows and air vents and creeping down
roads as befuddled onlookers gathered and watched the foamy mass envelop entire
vehicles and block traffic. Even on the fringes, the blob was several feet high
and work crews blocked off storm drains
to prevent the foam from spilling into nearby creeks. An airport spokesperson
said the incident had no effect on flight operations because the foam-filled
facility is on the opposite side of the airport from the terminals, but outside
the airport, chaos reigned. Workers made sure to collect the water they use to
dilute the foam and rinse the streets so it didn’t contaminate anything else,
but a warning to avoid touching the foam because it could cause skin or eye irritation
went ignored by a few folks who posed for photos in the foam to share on social
media……..
- The great Sex Curfew Scandal goes on…with no clear resolution
in sight. On one side is French midfielder Samir Nasri, is on a year-long loan
at Sevilla, but who previously played for Manchester City and its Spanish head
coach, Pep Guardiola. Now out from under Guardiola’s thumb, Nasri claimed that
the Catalan coach banned his players from having sex after midnight, alleging
that Guardiola said he introduced the curfew at former clubs Barcelona and
Bayern Munich because it helped top players like Lionel Messi and Robert
Lewandowski avoid injuries. Some coaches and boxing trainers have long had the belief
that their athletes or fighters should avoid getting after it in the sheets
close to a game or match lest they have tired legs, but Guardiolia insists that
he’s not in that camp. He joked that his Manchester City players wouldn't be
playing as well if he had introduced a sex ban. "It's impossible to play
good football if you don't make sex with your partner," Guardiola said. "I
never did that and I would never ban that. If you are doing it, better players."
That’s one way to attack allegations that you’re a prude, eh Pep? Suggest that
you actually want your players to get some because it makes them more effective
on the pitch…solid play. Guardiola has banned WiFi access during team meals,
eliminated hotel stays on the night before home games and cut players’ access
to junk food since taking over last summer, so he’s definitely not averse to
telling his players what they can or can’t do away from the pitch……..
- They may be tiny, but the island nation of Kiribati isn't letting
that fact stop them from trying to make a big impact on the world. The small
country located near New Zealand has established a large shark sanctuary that
will help ensure the creatures are protected across much of the central Pacific,
a move its leaders hope will put them on the map - a good thing because most
people in the world have no idea where to find Kiribati on the map. Vice
President Kourabi Nenem spoke at the sanctuary’s launch, declaring that his
country is committed to protecting
sharks from exploitation and overfishing. Among the central tenets of the
sanctuary is the banning of shark fishing in the area, which is about the size
of India. Kiribati is following the example set by Palau, which established the
first shark sanctuary in the region in 2009 and has been followed by the Marshall
Islands, French Polynesia and other nations. It’s a growing effort by a group
of small island nations banding together in an effort to make their mark on a
world in which the Pew Charitable Trusts estimates 100 million sharks are
killed each year by commercial fisheries. According to the organization, sharks
are vulnerable to overfishing because they're slow to mature and reproduce. The
predators are prized for their fins, which are used in shark fin soup, but at
least now they have an even bigger area where they can go and be safe from nets
and spears……..
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