- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! Russia was full of rage over the
weekend and the highlight was in Moscow, where police detained about three
dozen people at unauthorized rallies in the Russian capital, capping a week in
which anti-government protests broke out across the country. A massive police
presence tried to stifle any dissent in central Moscow, where pedestrians could
only access Red Square by passing through metal detectors and police blocked
off Pushkin Square, traditionally a gathering point for demonstrations. Those
moves by the government pushed much of the action to Triumphalnaya Square,
where 29 people were arrested while trying to conduct a march, and Manezhnaya
Square, which is adjacent to the Kremlin and saw seven others detained,
according to police figures. Elsewhere in the capital, well-known opposition
activist Ildar Dadin was arrested while picketing outside a police station,
according to OVD-Info, a group that monitors political repression. Dadin has
become a major figure in Russia's opposition community ever since he became the
first person sentenced to prison under harsh protest-suppression measures
pushed through by the Kremlin in 2014. His tales of being repeatedly beaten in
prison, where he served about half of a 2 1/2-year sentence, have made him even
more popular among opposition supporters, some of who were part of an attempted
uprising in St. Petersburg, where one person was arrested as about 20 people
tried to protest outside Gostiny Dvor, a sprawling retail structure on the
city's main avenue. All of this came a week after protests in which more than
1,000 people were arrested in Moscow alone, suggesting that Vlad Putin’s skin
is growing thinner by the day…….
- Welcome back, University of Alabama-Birmingham Blazers
football. Nearly two and a half years after the school initially shuttered the
program based on bullsh*t financial reasoning that never held up under closer
scrutiny, UAB football was back over the weekend for its spring game, in which
the Green team beat the Gold team 49-7 in front of 7,822 fans at Legion Field. The
result couldn’t matter less for the program’s supporters, including many former
players who rallied behind it when the university terminated the program over
the vociferous objections of current and former players who decried the efforts
to take away something in which they had invested a tremendous amount of time
and effort. The next time UAB takes the field in any sort of game will be in
the program's return to competition Sept. 2 against Alabama A&M, some 27
months after the UAB administration closed down the program in December 2014,
citing the high costs of fielding a competitive team. With the outpouring of
support that followed, the school reversed its decision and officially
reinstated the program in July 2015 and it took until now to put all of the
pieces into place for an official comeback to take root. "It goes without saying just what a
great feeling, what an emotional feeling it was to get off that bus and see
that unbelievable crowds at 11 o'clock on a Saturday," head coach Bill
Clark said. "For our fans, alumni, recruits and former players to be out
here was amazing." The next amazing sight will come this fall…….
- It may sound like some bizarre combination of Olympic
cycling and Thunderdome, Atlanta's colossal Cyclorama is actually a landmark
that's a virtual 19th-century high-tech Civil War history lesson and is currently
undergoing a massive restoration effort by preservationists. Those plucky
preservationists are working hard to get Cyclorama back on track and as part of
the effort, they’re planning to showcase a long-forgotten drawing that reveals
the little-known fact that there were once plans for another Atlanta Cyclorama.
The Atlanta History Center is restoring the 150,000-square-foot, cylindrical
panorama painting depicting the famed 1864 Battle of Atlanta and it remains one
of the world's largest artworks. It’s the handiwork of German and Austrian
immigrants hired in the 1880s to depict key moments in America's Civil War,
fitting because the reunited nation that came out of that war was just one
century removed from coming into existence as a massive collection of
immigrants. The reason few know about the plans for the second Cyclorama is
because one of the first one’s 19th century immigrant panorama painters, Louis
Kindt, nearly destroyed the evidence of the planned sequel. Kindt infamously
tossed some of his sketches outside on a rainy night in a fit of rage,
according to his great-grandson, John Kindt. One of the drawings showed the
Battle of Atlanta from a different perspective, while another displayed the
Battle of Nashville. As the story goes, Kindt's daughter retrieved the drawings
from the rain even though they weren’t discovered until many years later,
reportedly wrapped in protective paper and passed them on through the family,
ultimately ending up under a family member’s bed. John Kindt has been working
with the history center to put the two drawings on display for the world to see
as part of the renovation project…….
- Because #BeyonceKnowles. Right now, including the biggest
name in pop music and the celebrity overlord of tens of millions of rabid fans
in your next project is always the right choice and that’s precisely why the
singer is reportedly wanted for a key voice role in Disney’s new “The Lion
King” movie. If director Jon Favreau gets what he apparently wants, he’ll get
Knowles alongside Donald Glover, a.k.a. Childish Gambino, who has already been
cast as Simba in the remake alongside the voices of Idris Elba, Scarlett
Johansson and Bill Murray. Favreau is helming the recycling of the classic 1994
animated film in a similar manner to the CGI-filled, live-action adaptation of
last year’s The Jungle Book,” which he also directed. Word on the street is
that Knowle is Favreau’s top choice to voice Nala the lion, Simba’s childhood
friend and eventual love interest. Smartly, the director is said to be willing
to do whatever it takes to convince Knowles to be a part of the film even
though she recently pulled out of Coachella 2017 because she is pregnant. While
Lady Gaga has since been announced as her replacement headliner, sitting down
to record lines for an animated movie could be easier than doing a demanding
Coachella headlining gig. Maybe the chance to voice a character alongside the
best voice in show business this side of Morgan Freeman, a.k.a. James Earl
Jones, will be incentive enough for Knowles. Jones will once again voice Mufasa,
reprising his role from the original 1994 film. With or without Knowles, the
project will almost certainly make a lot of money, but her presence could boost
the bottom line even higher……….
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