- Spring
training is a serious, focused time for major leaguers across Arizona and
Florida. It’s when they prepare for the season ahead, shaking off the rust and
dust of a long offseason, lacing up their spikes once again…and warming up on
the practice field to the dulcet tones of a mariachi band. Yes, life is all
business, all the time at the Seattle Mariners spring training complex in
Arizona, where teammates decided to do it up right for Leonys Martin’s
birthday, hiring a four-member mariachi band to serenade the outfielder as he
arrived in the clubhouse. Martin’s teammates must have paid well, because the
band stuck with Martin throughout morning workouts, providing a charming
soundtrack for much of the spring training complex. To Martin’s credit, he went
along with the fun, donning a massive sombrero while taking swings in the
batting cage, catching fly balls and doing running drills. A lot of people hate
their birthday once they get past the age of 21, but Martin was a good sport
and said it felt great to know that his teammates set up the surprise for him.
He identified the team’s best player, pitcher Felix Hernandez, for setting up
the surprise and when the team’s star wants to do something nice for your
birthday, you smile and say thank you. For a guy who was born and raised in
Cuba, Martin probably never thought he’d be making big money to play baseball
while fully costumed mariachi band members serenaded him under the Arizona
sun………
- Embrace
who you are, Russia. You aren't a true world power, you aren’t a place with
lots of class and style…but you are a nation with a surplus of soccer hooligans
and that’s why you should listen to modern visionary/Russian lawmaker Igor
Lebedev, who sits in the Russian parliament and has crafted an unorthodox
solution to the country's problems with soccer hooliganism ahead of next year's
World Cup. Lebedev wants to take what usually happens in the street and
involves Molotov cocktails, lead pipes and shanks and legalize it, even turn it
into a spectator sport. Inspired by the fact that organized groups of Russian
fans, many with martial arts training, fought English fans on the streets of
Marseille during last year's European Championship, Lebedev has called for
"draka," the Russian word for "fight" -- 20 fighters on
each side, unarmed, in an arena. This forward thinker posted a statement on the
website of the nationalist LDPR party in which he said organized brawls
"could turn fans' aggression in a peaceful direction." This guy is
bold enough to believe that this wacky idea would serve as an
"example" for English fans, who he described as undisciplined louts
and poor fighters. "Russia would be a pioneer in a new sport,"
Lebedev proclaimed, suggesting that fights between different fan groups could
draw crowds of thousands. "English fans arrive, for example, and start
picking fights. And they get the answer -- challenge accepted. A meeting in a
stadium at a set time." There’s plenty of fuel for this fire, as a Russian
Premier League game on Saturday between CSKA Moscow and Zenit St. Petersburg
was highlighted by brawls between groups of rival fans who fought one another
and tried to break through a security fence. From a man who saluted Russian
fans for their role in the violence in Marseille last year, this is merely the
next breakthrough idea……..
- It
was involved in one of the most memorable Oscar moments in decades and now,
it’s going on the road. No, not the clusterf*ck account crew from PricewaterhouseCoopers, nor the award-presenting
duo of Warren Beatty and Annette Benning…but “La La Land,” which may not have
won the Oscar for Best Picture, but took home plenty of other award and will
now be the centerpiece of an unusual barnstorming tour across the United States
and United Kingdom in which its score will be recreated live by an orchestra
and choir. The tour will begin with a special screening of Damian Chazelle’s
musical, which stars Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling, at the iconic Hollywood Bowl
in Los Angeles on May 26 and 27, with a 100-piece orchestra, jazz ensemble and
chorus conducted by Justin Hurwitz, who composed the score for the project. Hurwitz
was one of those who didn’t get their “La La Land” Oscar awarded and then taken
away, as he actually did win (and keep) the award for Best Original Score.
Seeing this new production won't be cheap, as tickets are expected to range
between $50 and $90, but this tour won't just cover English-speaking corners of
the world. While it will go through the U.S. and then on to Manchester, York,
Bristol, Birmingham and Edinburgh in the U.K., it will also make stops in
Canada, Mexico, Italy, Turkey and Switzerland and there are expected to be more
locations added as this merry musical mirth rolls around the world……..
- That’s
one way to tackle your city’s homeless/panhandling problem. City officials in
Portland, Maine are considering offering panhandlers work to take them off the
streets and into more productive lives. Granted, this is going to be tough to
implement with a group of transients who often lack identification, a permanent
address or the mental stability to function in society, but even so, the city
is working on a 36-week pilot program that would offer panhandlers an
opportunity to work for $10.68 an hour cleaning up parks and other light labor
jobs, and connect them with social services. City officials say they’ve
patterned their program after a similar one
in Albuquerque, New Mexico as a means of combating panhandling, which
has become a pressing issue not only in thriving metropolises like Portland,
Maine, but in other major cities around the country. Businesses complain that
it hurts their profits because people don’t like passing by beggars to get into
a store, while locals and tourists lament being hassled by panhandlers asking
for money on sidewalks and at stoplights. Portland’s problems come even though
the city has a law against aggressive panhandling and also tried to ban
loitering on street median, but that median proposal was shot down when it was
deemed unconstitutional by courts. Instead, maybe hiring panhandlers and receiving
something productive from them in return for the money being put in their hands
will help solve the problem and at this point, the city of Portland appears
ready to try just about anything……..
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