- Spring training is a time for bizarre, random baseball
injuries. Even the potbellied, mustachioed man tasked with leading teams into
battle aren't immune and thus, San Francisco Giants coach Jose Alguacil has
himself a wholly unwanted nose job. Alguacil was sitting in a folding chair
outside the dugout during a spring training game against the Kansas City Royals
when a wayward foul ball struck him in the face, breaking his nose and forcing him
to have surgery to put his busted beak back in place. According to the Giants,
Alguacil had surgery to address the nose and a "deep laceration,” as well
as small fractures in his eye socket. The fatal foul ball was struck when
Kansas City's Hunter Dozier checked his swing in the eighth inning and sent the
ball screaming toward the Giants’ dugout, where Alguacil was unable to avoid
it. He immediately fell to the ground, although manager Bruce Bochy said the
Giants' new first base coach said he felt fine after the accident. Still,
trainers at Surprise Stadium outside Phoenix tended to Alguacil and there was
blood in the spot where he fell, so he was loaded into a cart and driven from
the field. After that, Alguacil was airlifted to St. Joseph's Hospital in
Phoenix, during which time he was probably thinking that this sort of nonsense
never happened when he managed the Giants' Triple-A affiliate in Sacramento
last season. Still, Alguacil is a grizzled baseball veteran so he’ll return to
the dugout, receive plenty of teasing from his players and go right back to the
same spot in the dugout for future games……..
- There’s been plenty of reasons to cry in Crimea in recent
years. But when the inanimate objects in public places begin weeping, then life
has reached a new low. In the capital of the disputed region that Russia
stole/annexed back in 2014, there is a curious sight going on involving the
eyes of a bust of the last czar in the city of Simferopol. Hundreds of people
are flocking to see the statue in the Crimean capital after reports spread that
the sculpture appeared to be weeping. The bust of Nicholas II was erected near
the Crimean prosecutor's office in in 2016, two years after Russia invaded and
thieved the region based on whatever line of bullsh*t dictator Vlad Putin
thought sounded good at the time. The reason Nicky the Second received a bust
is because like previous czars, he’s considered a saint by the Russian Orthodox
Church. Rports of weeping statues, bleeding statues, deities appearing in
grease stains behind diner ovens or on pieces of burnt toast are nothing new
anywhere in the world, but this one has the support of Natalia Poklonskaya, a
former Crimean prosecutor. She called the appearance of moisture "a
miracle that neither scientists or anyone can explain” and added fuel to the
fire of the kooks who believe this is some sort of divine symbol by observing
that this nonsense corresponds with the 100th anniversary of Nicholas II's
abdication from power. "The sovereign in helping us," Poklonskaya said.
Hey Nat, you’re not helping things, you’re hurting and you shouldn’t be spewing
that nonsense in public……
- Let Björk’s weirdness continue its march around the globe.
The Icelandic pop singer’s virtual reality-based exhibition, Björk Digital, has
previously made stops in Tokyo and London, allowing visitors to immerse
themselves in two virtual reality experiences: ‘Family’ and ‘Notget.” Now,
Björk is bjringing her exhibitions to Los Angeles, where films directed by
Andrew Thomas Huang will also be available to view, while footage of Björk
performing ‘Quicksand’ in Tokyo will also supplement this run of that
exhibition. The L.A. run of the exhibit will take place from May 19 to June 4
at the Magic Box at The Reef. But in
Hollywood, there always has to be a special twist in order to set any show
apart and in this case, there will be a special live performance by the
exhibition’s curator. Yes, Björk herself will perform at the Walt Disney
Concert Hall on May 30 as part of the larger Reykjavík Festival - nothing like
Icelandic festivals in sunny southern California - along with the L.A.
Philharmonic, which will be conducted by Bjarni Frímann Bjarnason. It’s
arguably the largest and scariest Icelandic invasion ever to take place in the
United States and all of this is almost enough to distract from how extremely
boring the vast majority of Björk’s music is. If only art could be utilized to
redeem the ear-assaulting tones of artists like Nickelhack and Avril Lavigne.
See if you can make some headway on that one, Canada……..
- What do you do when the target of your legal rage just
doesn’t give a damn? Such is life for Cleveland police, who are locked in a
prolonged, seemingly futile battle with a persistent panhandler who’s been
cited more than any human being ever should be, yet keeps on keeping on. The
scofflaw in question is David Spaulding, who has been cited more than 250 times
for panhandling since 2013 and racked up nearly all those citations coming at
an intersection in a neighborhood best known for where Ariel Castro once held
three young women hostage in his home for years. Most people would prefer to
not hang out in that area, but this guy is holding it down at this west side
intersection for several years and the only time he’s not getting cited is when
he’s sighted inside a jail cell. However, Spaulding has supporters at the American
Civil Liberties Union of Ohio, which sued the city in federal court this week
on behalf of one of Spaulding’s co-workers, John Mancini, a homeless man who’s
making the case that the city's panhandling laws are unconstitutional because
they make pleas of poverty a crime. Homeless advocates claim in the lawsuit
that Cleveland police issued more than 5,800 panhandling citations between 2007
and August of 2015, which makes it clear that Spaulding has inspired quite a
movement. In the last 14 months alone, he’s been cited twice on 10 different
days and four times on Oct. 3, 2016. His favorite spot is just 2 miles from
downtown Cleveland, right beside an off-brand gas station and in prime position
to snag money from motorists stopped at a busy traffic light. For Spaulding’s
defenders, there is the small problem of him currently being in jail not only
for panhandling, but for drug possession after he was found to have a crack
pipe loaded with product in his pocket when police arrested him Jan. 16. Other
than that, he appears to be a stand-up (and hold a sign) kind of human being……..
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