Anime studio Gonzo (Last Exile, Afro Samurai) has announced its development of an original sci-fi slapstick school comedy anime series titled “Copihan.” Hatsune Miku character designer KEI will be involved in the project. Source: Anime News Network

I see you. 

You have seen the Nashville Predators' 3-1 series deficit to the Vancouver Canucks, and you believe the Preds to be done. Sunk. Gonzo. I mean, after all - they're going up against the President's Trophy winners, that team from Canada that ices the freakin' Sedin twins. Mission impossible, right? 

Wrong. For an average team, the ground may well be too much to make up. If we've learned anything this year, though, it's that the 2010-11 Nashville Predators are not an average team. 

An average team would've folded like a cheap suit in the regular season with as many crucial injuries as the Preds have. 

An average team doesn't ice the game's best goalie and defensive pairing. 

An average team doesn't win their first ever playoff series in rather convincing fashion. 

An average team doesn't go into the postseason and score with less than two minutes left in regulation to win the game in overtime. Twice. 

The Nashville Predators must win three games in a row. Daunting? Yes. Impossible? Not by a long shot. Not only have the Preds beaten the Canucks three times already this year, but, over the course of 82 games, they won three or more games consecutively five times. One of those stretches involved beating the Ducks, Kings, and Sharks - all playoff teams - and in another, they defeated the Bruins, Red Wings, and Sabres, also all playoff teams. 

I won't sit here and tell you that a comeback is likely, because it really isn't. But know this - it ain't over until they say it's over, and ruling out a team with as much heart as Nashville would be a fool's errand. 

The portly woman is not yet singing. Go Preds.

160,000 people will pack Churchill Downs on Saturday – and very few of them will be sober

The Kentucky Derby has been called "the most exciting two minutes in sport" but as far as the great majority of American sports fans are concerned, these are also the only two minutes each year when their attention is held by the sport of horse racing. Like Britain, America races all year round and, thanks to its size, it stages many more races than the UK but for millions of armchair fans US racing begins and ends in Louisville on the first Saturday in May.

Brief though it is, however, racing does at least make the most of its moment in the spotlight. Louisville, on the banks of the Ohio river, is full to bursting in the week before the race, as the imminent grand event is celebrated with parades and spectacular firework displays, while the attendance at Churchill Downs is around 160,000, half as many again as the highest ever crowd for a SuperBowl, even though the weather in Kentucky in early May is frequently unkind.

As with any historical sporting event – the Kentucky Derby was first run in 1875 – the day is dripping with icons and traditions, from the gleaming twin spires above the track to the immense garland of roses that is draped around the winner and the communal singing of My Old Kentucky Home a few minutes before post time that can reduce the most grizzled of Kentuckians to tears. Even the connections' walk with their horses from barns to paddock is televised as a traditional part of the build-up, as is the call of "Riders up!" before they leave the parade ring.

The race itself is fast, furious and often rough, as horses and riders jostle for position on the vital run to the first bend. Like all American tracks, Churchill is a tight oval, and any horse caught three or four wide on the first turn is guaranteed to concede vital ground. A strong pace usually means that the chasers are closing as they turn for home at the top of the stretch, and for every winner that returns to a place in the history books there are generally at least half a dozen hard-luck stories of what might have been if only the gaps had appeared.

From the point of view of the punter – or "handicapper" as Americans say – this year's Derby looks enticingly open, while the long, countrywide series of trial events leading up to Derby day always ensures that there is plenty of form to consider.

Dialed In, the winner of the Florida Derby, has drawn a good stall in eight and is expected to start favourite on the PMU at around 4-1, the same price offered by British bookies, while Uncle Mo, the brilliant winner of the Breeders' Cup Juvenile at Churchill Downs last November, is on the drift to 11-2 with the books after drawing stall 18 of 20, which is a horrible place to be.

Nehro, next in the betting, is worse off still in 19, while another leading fancy, Archarcharch, who won the Arkansas Derby, has what is often thought to be the worst draw of all in stall one. At most American tracks, and in most fields, the box against the rail would be a good one to have, but Churchill is not really designed for 20-horse fields. To squeeze in the starting gate, the track layout is adjusted so that the horse in stall one is all but certain to catch the worst of the bunching on the first turn.

European runners are a rarity in the Derby, but there is a live contender from Ireland this year in Aidan O'Brien's Master Of Hounds, third home in last year's Racing Post Trophy, while Midnight Interlude, from California, is another very interesting contender. Last time out, he won the Grade One California Derby in his first start after winning his maiden, so he is clearly progressing rapidly. Statistics are a big part of American betting, though, and one fact that will be restated over and again before the race is that the last – indeed, only – horse to win the Derby without racing as a two-year-old was Apollo in 1882.

American sports fans' interest in the Kentucky Derby means that the backstretch at Churchill is crawling with reporting crews this week, looking for "story" horses with a news angle. This year, they don't have to look too hard, thanks principally to Rosie Napravnik, the 23-year-old who will attempt to become the first female jockey to win the race. She'll be on Pants On Fire, the Louisiana Derby winner.

Once the Derby winner has been garlanded with roses – hence the race's nickname, the Run for the Roses – the sporting focus in the US will be off racing for another year, unless, of course, the winner also lands the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico two weeks later. That would set up a tilt at the Triple Crown with victory in the Belmont Stakes another three weeks after that, and racing would get another two-and-a-half minutes in the spotlight as the Belmont unfolds in New York.

For an unforgettable description of the Kentucky Derby experience in the infield, there is Hunter S Thompson's famous article "The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved", the feature that launched gonzo journalism. There's also plenty of infield mayhem on YouTube, such as this short clip of two men running across the top of the portable toilets while their fellow racegoers throw cans of beer at them.

As Jason Busbee put it on Yahoo Sports: "It's difficult to estimate exactly how many people pile into the infield at Churchill Downs, though the number who remain sober through the entire Derby afternoon remains pegged at a steady 0."

Gonzo comenzó a trabajar con otro conocido diseñador de personajes para su siguiente anime que lanzará este año titulado Copihan. Se trata del diseñador de Hatsune Miku, KEI. El nuevo anime ya cuenta con una página web y una cuenta de twitter además de que se han revelado ya algunos diseños de personajes.Sitio web oficial: copihan.com. Twitter oficial: @copihan.Copihan será una historia original para el proyecto, se tratará de una comedia escolar situada en el Tokyo del 2034, pero una versión en manga…

Near-future slapstick school comedy already has manga

After a slow start, Gonzo is now hitting .316.

CYCLING The SF Bike Coalition's valet parking was strangely empty for a blazingly sunny Saturday event by the Ferry Building. "They've just been leaving their bikes around," a bored attendant told me of the crowd assembled for the Red Bull Ride + Style fixed-gear competition. But that wasn't out of apathy to their rides — these attendees wanted to keep their bikes close.

Candy-colored fixies were turned upside-down on their handlebars, stacked in piles with the steeds of their owners' friends. Young men (there were a lot of young men) kept their hands firmly locked in riding position, rolling their bikes back and forth as they spoke, some times gesticulating with them for added effect. Those slim, messenger-style backpacks were much in evidence.

In the competition arena, no one strayed far from their bikes either, except for the spectacular falls that sporadically broke up the action. Strap-on fixed-gear pedals make for epic wipe-outs; one soldier was taken off the field on a stretcher.

Save for the lone female who rolled about during the event's interminable "practice times," all riders were male. This was about bros on bikes. Indeed, as the final race around the hazardous, hairpin track was announced between Bay Area childhood friends Jason Clary and Kell McKenzie (Clary won), the announcer took a moment to salute their relationship. "You guys have known each other since you were 14? It's bro versus bro! Fixed-gear nation!"

Competitive fixed-gear racing is, relatively speaking, a nascent addition to the legion of bone-cracking thrill fests enjoyed by extreme sports fans. The sport's lexicon is borrowed from the death-defying ride tactics of gonzo bike messengers, a profession that has to sprint to keep up with e-mail and 3-D projection technology to stay salient for corporate America.

San Francisco is one of the messenger bike meccas. The city has given birth to some epically fly-terrifying fixie films — guys slaloming down from Twin Peaks, diving into traffic, holding onto buses for acceleration, basically using the ridiculous speed you can achieve on a fixed- gear bike for pure chaos (in the eyes of the pedestrian, surely).

But street stunts do not a competitive sport make. On Saturday, it was apparent that everyone was trying to figure out just what Ride + Style meant. The week before the event, the Guardian interviewed Austin Horse, one of New York City's best-known bike messengers, by e-mail.

"Nobody knows what to expect about Ride N Style," he wrote. "It's very mysterious, but the riders know it's going to be a challenging and compelling event because it's coming from Red Bull. [Editor's note: Apparently Red Bull's sponsorship is a big deal. Red Bull also sponsored a downhill bike race through a Brazilian favela, the aerodynamic inanity of Flutag, and your most jittery friend in college who had a dorm room full of Red Bull crates. Remember that guy?] The result is that all the riders are a little more anxious about this race than other events. What we do know is that it's gonna be a sprint with features some guys aren't going to be comfortable with. It's a little scary."

The second half of the day was given over to what was billed as the most cutting edge part of the competition: the freestyle contest. Covered in sherbet colors, spiders, geometric whorls, and playing card designs, they looked every bit the background for an extreme sports tournament.

"Only rarely have events invested in features tailored to the constraints and potential of this type of riding," Horse says. When the cameras are off "people practice wherever they can — skate parks and street spots."

In San Francisco, one of the most reliable spots to watch good fixed-gear freestyling is in the Harry Bridges Plaza, the strip of asphalt between the Ferry Building and where Ride + Style was erected in the more ample Justin Herman Plaza. You can go out to Harry Bridges at dusk most days and see people hopping their bikes off the ground, spinning in the air, twerking their handlebars, riding backward in tight figure eights, and stopping on dimes.

But the ramps took it up a notch — so up that spectators began to compare the competition to those of BMX bikes, which can catch a lot more air than fixed gears. It wasn't a coincidental connection: some of the competitors announced on the microphone that they were usually on a BMX, and Jeremy Witek, the lead designer of the ramps, told me during the construction phase that this was the first time he'd been asked to make structures like these for a fixed-gear competition.

There were some hands-down highlights of the freestyle portion — Kohei "Kozo" Fuji flew in from Osaka to bust the first fixed-gear back flip in international competition. But many of the routines seemed strangely suited for their setting. The beauty of the fixed-gear lies in its simplicity — one pump of the legs, one rotation of the wheels, the easy mathematics of human body and machine.

But the novelty of seeing these lifestyle bikes thrust into the bright lights and loud announcers of the X Games variety wasn't lost on those least jaded of San Franciscans — the Embarcadero tourists. Washing my hands in the Embarcadero Center bathroom, I heard a young woman essentially ask her mom what the hell this crazy city of bikes is up to. "Does San Francisco always have this?"

Girl, it does now. 

 

"How do they make us buy their beer?" asks Alan for this month's Session. "Quite easily", I'm afraid, is the answer in my case. I'll try pretty much anything once, and then proceed to bore you, the innocent reader, with what I think of it.

The brewers don't have to put much effort in to get my attention either. Recently I sprung a bottle of Marks & Spencer Southwold Winter IPA from my stash. It's brewed by Adnams, a consistent favourite English brewer of mine and I'd heard good things about it. At first sip I realised something dubious was going on: it tastes identical to Adnams Innovation, not a bad thing by any means, but there was a moment of disappointment when it occurred that I wouldn't be getting a new beer to write about. Damn you, Marks & Spencer!

Not being one to hide my disappointments, I let Twitter know and word came back from the ether -- from none other than Adnams's illustrious head brewer Fergus -- that Southwold Winter IPA is very slightly different from Innovation. Saved! Specifically, it's dry hopped in a different way. I don't know how differently, and frankly I don't care. A new tick is a new tick and the ridiculously high price that I paid in M&S is now, officially, justified.

What does Southwold Winter IPA taste like? Exactly like Innovation, as I say: fresh peaches and candied oranges. Lots of summer zest, which means the "winter" designation is a serious bum steer. Cracking beer though.

You don't even need to adjust the recipe for me to buy the beer, though I do try and avoid straight re-badges of things I already know (unless they're good, of course). An increasing number of the more, shall we say, geek-friendly breweries are turning out specials and collaborations that are simply blends of existing beers. I'm slightly bothered by this. I think it's cheating, even if it is likely to offer a taste experience quite different from the constituent beers. I tend to pick carefully among such offerings and am only likely to buy if I like the breweries and the beer genre.

At first I thought that was what De Molen and Flying Dog had done with their Bat Out of Hell collaboration. And, as a fan of both Hel & Verdoemnis and Gonzo I was quite prepared to ignore my principles and get my paws on some. But it's not a mere blend, it's a brand new brew from out of the Bodegraven windmill: score!

At the start of the pour I thought this 9.18% ABV imperial stout was totally flat: no bubbles and no head for the first few seconds. Turns out it's just so damn thick it takes ages for the carbonation to get its act together, but when it does a thick, tan-coloured, long-lasting head is the reward. The goodies keep coming with bitter, vegetal hops on the nose: a familiar aroma to anyone who knows the joy of Flying Dog Gonzo, though it's similarly lacking in stoutiness here. But while Gonzo keeps pumping the hops in the flavour, they ease off on tasting here. Instead it's much more of a classic imperial stout: the gloopy scrapings from the bottom of the coffee machine, the first cigar of the evening, one of those terribly posh bars of dark chocolate with the minimalist wrapper, and the inside of the saddler's workshop. The hops pop up again towards the end, though more as a balancing bitterness than a green vegetal flavour.

Bat Out of Hell isn't cheap: DrinkStore took nearly €18 off me for it, but I definitely got my money's worth. Brewers I trust, a style I love, fun branding and local availability: all things that will pretty much guarantee I'll be reaching for my wallet.

Sylvester
Michelle says: Sylvester was going to be put to sleep at the local shelter because he was a bottle baby. Any kittens under one pound and not eating on their own are automatically put to sleep. Sometimes they call the rescues, but sadly they don't really have the employee bandwidth. So he just happened to be very lucky that a rescue was there that day volunteering. He was brought to my husband and me to care for.

What a spoiled and silly boy he turned into! He was a cuddler and super talkative. He loved to chase feathers, play with toys, sneak and pounce. His favorite "toy" was his foster sibling Debbie! He'd like to be held but then he would DART off to lay and wrestle with her. We nicknamed him Gonzo because he was totally nutso. But really cute. He was adopted with another kitten from another foster home.

Courtesy of: Michelle Peters Spivack

Here comes the bride … or she was there earlier

It's hard work being creative. It seems to involve riding on an endless conveyer belt of drinking, incredible ideas and hangovers that are so intense, so powerful and so earth shatteringly important that it's impossible to find time to do anything about them.

Since moving in with Sam, my levels of creativity have been boosted. In the last evening alone – aided by three bottles of wine and the dregs of a spirits collection – Sam and I devised a new gameshow (An Apple a Day hosted by Matt Damon – catchphrase "How do you like them apples?"), formatted (in our heads) an observational documentary which "charts the fascinating lives of the people who live on and around the A23 trunk road", and, with help from our friend Paul, come up with a way of combining the two most lucrative online phenomena in the shape of In-Porn Betting™.

Indeed, this was a fertile period for us as "creatives", although slightly less so for the website, which both Sam and myself were finding trouble to make the time for between daytime episodes of Only Fools and Horses on Gold. It was with this slight guilt that Sam found it possible to mobilise all four of the Enter4entertainment.com team on the streets.

"No one's going to watch this," grumbled John while filming the Palace of Westminster on his iPhone from the top deck of the number 59 bus.

"John, tomorrow there's gonna be 2 billion people – that's a third of the world's population by the way – looking at London. Thousands of journalists will descend from every corner of the globe to cover this bloody wedding and you think we should do what, let the BBC and Sky get all the glory?" Sam said with a hint of an angry pout.

"No, I accept that people will want to see Cat Deeley on CNN, I'm just not convinced they'll want to see your sweaty face via UStream talking to a webcam whilst standing on Victoria Street."

"Look, the internet isn't just about words, people expect multimedia these days," said Sam, becoming increasingly exasperated. "Besides, if we don't do a live stream, how will people know we were actually there? We could have done the whole thing by watching the telly."

As it was easier not to wind up my current landlord, I, like Daniel, chose to keep quiet while John gathered the final shots for our video trailer.

Yes it was rough around the edges, but once John had finished editing the video (complete with comedy voiceover from a fake Kate and Wills) it didn't look too bad at all. We dropped it on YouTube, embedded it on the site and sloped off to John's back garden for a celebratory beer.

Another evening of creativity began to develop, as Sam decided the company should pay for a barbecue and accompanying drinks for its hard working staff. After air-scripting a fiendishly complicated sequel for The Shawshank Redemption with the logline "Prison was never going to be enough", we turned our attention back to the website.

Despite earlier reservations, we all agreed to tackle any potential technological pitfalls head on and attempt to live stream "atmospheric coverage" from the streets of London via Sam's and John's mobile phones in tandem with a witty live blog courtesy of myself and Daniel. This was going to be brilliant, this was gonzo journalism digital style, this was … worth celebrating with another drink.

I woke the next morning disorientated and in considerable pain. Unsure where I was or why I was sharing a double futon with Daniel, I pulled myself up and opened the curtains. It appeared I was in John's front room. Good.

Unable to find my phone I turned on the TV in order to ascertain the time via the Sky Guide. Something wasn't right. BBC1 looked a lot like it was carrying a feed of William and Kate's nuptials. Yep, I was almost certain that was the case. But it was only 11.3 5am … who gets married at 11 in the morning? I guess we had missed the wedding after all.

Tim Glanfield

Eightball Boogie by Declan Burke

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Declan Burke is an Irish author and proprietor of the popular blog Crime Always Pays. Originally published only as an e-book, and now available as a print copy, Burke's down and dirty story of crime, greed and the search for redemption is most worthwhile. Henry Rigby is a freelance journalist and sometime private eye that gets drawn into a web of conspiracy when covering the murder of the wife of a prominent Irish politician. After being hired to investigate a supposed licit romantic affair, Rigby trips over a veritable hornets nest of drug trafficking, crooked cops, bent politicians and the return from prison of his ne'er do well brother Gonzo. Burke writes very well with a snarky and sardonic sense of humor, delving deep into the depths of noir that should make fans of Ken Bruen and Alan Guthrie happy. The complex and ever changing narrative is wrapped up nicely in the end and overall Burke does a fine job telling a compelling crime story.

View all my reviews

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FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS: CRITERION COLLECTION (BLU-RAY) Film Threat Which brings us to Terry Gilliam's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, a film adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson's gonzo journalism masterpiece. This is the type of film that takes more than a single sit-down to really unwrap and experience, so that coupled ... and more »

? for Polian   just explain reason for  last 2 picks, or is there something we dont know like arent we getting a 3rd round corner THOMAS back from IR , yet we took one and no safety --------   Already forgot wear they went know at least   1  good WR such as Doss, but others too  went after round 4 & FS /  SS T Slash a real play maker after Round 6   Is  Carter at 4th round  a 3rd down, goal line back but R U saying  he runs only , he really cant block nor catch consistently save for a toss on a sweep play & nereds some blockers there or left out to dry IS HE OUR FB ?   Rucker is From Mich St. I live in Mich, he is not bad , not a true play maker & cant make easy IT's and just thought Safety was not just a  a need  but Slash was BPA as well, I mean bullit needs to be signed and we don't know how he will be stability wise and ability wise after that injury   Also thought WR, well Gonzo & Collie lets  hope both stay healthy or no depth left after them and will be Clark, Brody,  Wayne, Garcon,  White & tamme in reserve or maybe in 2 TE sets if  new OL Line can hold well

I always like to finish up the Tattooed Poets Project on a strong note, so today's tattooed poet, the last of this year's series, is the heavily-tattooed poet Debbie Kirk.


It also happens to be Debbie's birthday today, as we check out one of her tattoos. More specifically, let's look at the top of her left arm:



This piece, complete with straight razor, brass knuckles and cherry bomb, bears a banner that proclaims "Bow to your elders, you Emo Fucks."

I mean, what more can I say about that?

In discussing which tattoo of Debbie's to use, this exchange took place:

Tattoosday: "I hesitate to use the emo one because of the language and because I'm sure people will not understand why you would get it, but that makes me want to use it more".

Debbie: "its a favorite with peeps...it has been declared the sexiest tattoo ever..."

Tattoosday: "I love tattoos but they are generally so benign nowadays, so it's nice to see one with a true fuck-all attitude."

Debbie: "Yeah, that defines me what you said right there....and why I got the tattoo. I think that single tattoo is the most ME. I can be a bit honest...which is why people like my poetry."

Where'd she get the tattoo? Debbie recalls " I just remember I got it in Venice 5 years ago from a girl who proposed to me when I told her my idea...I still tell that story. I KNEW it was good with that reaction and she was hot."
 
Debbie gave us several poems to choose from, and the one we selected, she says, is very representative of her work:

Le sexe sur petit écran a déjà largement été évoqué, notamment sur Canal+ avec Pigalle la nuit, Maison close et Hard. Mais quand c’est Arte qui s’y colle, on s’y pique. 

Le pitch ? Dans la famille Valadine, on est pornographe de père en fils/fille, à la tête d’un empire du X français, qui part à la dérive depuis le succès du gonzo et du streaming. Mais les Valadine ne sont pas en reste de névroses, conflits, secrets et autres problèmes de famille, disons, plus classique. Cinq raisons de ne pas zapper cet ovni télé.

Le X est un sujet comme les autres

Choisir une famille ordinaire, la placer dans un environnement qui l’est moins, puis dérouler les ficelles de l'intrigue est devenu un classique du petit écran. Six Feet Under projette deux frères à la tête d'une entreprise de pompes funèbres. Les Soprano montre un boss de la mafia sur le divan de son psy. Et dans Weeds, une mère au foyer devient une dealeuse de cannabis hors pair pour faire vivre sa famille.

lire la suite de l’article sur http://madame.lefigaro.fr

With a CV taking in pranksta rap, soft rock and Guinness World Record piano-playing, chameleon-like Canadian Chilly is well-placed to drop science on his peers …

"For me, entertainment is war, and the enemy are the artists," says Chilly Gonzales. "The artist is someone who just pleases himself, or herself – or maybe someone who thinks that being an artist is a great lifestyle choice, but doesn't have the sack to pull it off. A great entertainer – he or she is always an artist. But an artist is only rarely an entertainer."

And Chilly Gonzales is certainly entertaining. Rising to notoriety in the creative ferment of electroclash-era Berlin, this Canadian performer has shown a remarkable, chameleonic skill for reinvention; by turns a "pranksta" rapper, classical pianist, Billy Joel-style soft rocker, remixer of the likes of Björk and Daft Punk, inventor of "jazz chess" (see last year's feature film, Ivory Tower), and behind-the-scenes superproducer adding sparkle to rising stars like Marina & The Diamonds, Cocknbullkid and Boys Noize. Not only that, he's a Guinness Book Of Records holder (World Record For Longest Concert Performed By An Individual), after he tinkled the ivories for 27 consecutive hours in a 2009 performance at Paris's Ciné 13 Théâtre.

On the eve of his return to the UK to play a dual-piano show at London's Koko, The Guide finds Chilly in buoyant mood. So much so that he's willing to share his views on how some of his musical peers can raise their game. If entertainment is war, think of this as boot camp …

Thom Yorke

He's a creep. He's a weirdo. What can Chilly suggest for Radiohead's prince of gloom?

"Radiohead are not my cup of tea. I can't nod my head to it in any form – it's very [in a disparaging tone of voice] progressive and arty. But there is something iconic about Thom. That dancing video [Lotus Flower] made a lot of people curious. Is he trying to be a good dancer? He's daring you to think it's a joke. I say go further. I dare him to go and make jokes. I would like to see him appear in some kind of Curb Your Enthusiasm-style show. He should do a stand-up comedy tour."

Marina Diamandis

The kooky Welsh singer glanced the charts, but real success has eluded her. Can Chilly help?

"I worked with Marina a little before her album came out. She presented herself as a pop star-in-waiting, which is a huge gamble, totally admirable. But it seems she hasn't quite achieved her goals. I think there's a trend in British music at the moment, with Adele having huge success, Amy Winehouse and Lily Allen – the problem with Marina is she may just be too beautiful. The women who are big in British music at the moment, they're very charismatic, good-looking, but not quite model-looking. So for Marina, what about some reverse plastic surgery? A few features just a bit off, but still charming, and maybe we can move the needle on those numbers."

Adele

Her latest album 21 has spent 12 weeks at No 1 …

"I like her. She confirms what I was saying, this new … I won't say ugly duckling, but this social trend for women who aren't traditionally beautiful.
There's something about being not quite traditionally beautiful in British society that adds a certain credibility – something that translates to the blues, I think."

Chris Brown

Becoming the poster-boy for domestic violence might not be the greatest career move – right?

"He's in trouble again – he pulled this stunt on a big US talkshow. They asked him, like, 'So what was the period like for you when you got caught smashing Rihanna's face in?' But not put like that, very polite. He was supposed to do a performance, and he left the set in the ad break, trashed his hotel room and left with his shirt off. The twist is, it turns out, they'd cleared the questions in advance. So it's really a big publicity stunt. He's just trying to get his Charlie Sheen on. The thing about Sheen is that he clearly hates himself so much, so we can identify. Chris Brown doesn't hate himself. He hates the world. He just needs to get the self-hate on. Then he might become more interesting."

50 Cent

Fiddy reinvented gangsta rap for the noughties – but how long can one man rap about automatic weaponry?

"There's been a generational shift in rap, and 50 is on that pivot point. He's had a long battle with Rick Ross, a rapper who's a former prison guard. Ross instinctively felt that credibility in rap was moving beyond who had been in the most violent altercations. 50 gambled that the reputation that established him, the guy that had gotten shot, would carry him over, and he did little music in the battle – he was doing videos, strange wrestling-style pranks, and Ross really showed him up. I think 50 needs to stop doing music immediately and embrace his inner LL Cool J. He needs to make the transition to acting in police dramas. He's in no danger of his legacy being tarnished. He just needs to make people forget he was actually a musician."

Madonna

Madge is no stranger to reinvention – but has she lost her touch?

"Obviously at some point she's going to have to decide how she's going to spend act three of her professional life. I feel like she needs to find some Sunset Boulevard-esque vehicle, make something really transcendent.
She should be a bit quicker off the mark in finding the right people to work with. But I feel like she still has some amazing masterpiece in her still, probably an acting role. Something that captures that feminine dilemma of ageing."

Rebecca Black

Californian teenager-turned-internet meme, broadly pilloried for her Friday video (119 million YouTube views and counting …)

"The first time I saw her video, I thought, she's the pop music Bristol Palin [daughter of Sarah, who achieved big US TV success in Dancing With The Stars]. I think she has a chance at a political career. She could really tap into that whole Tea Party movement, that sort of pretty-but-abstinent teenage girl thing that the Palins surround themselves with. I think we're going to see a lot more of these female figures on the American right wing. There's one called Michele Bachmann who's completely batshit. The combination of that wholesome pretty face and that very scary rightwing message can get a very potent result."

Drake

The teen actor-turned-preppy rapper, signed to Lil Wayne's Young Money imprint. Will Gonzo go easy on his fellow Canadian?

"I have history with Drake. It began with him using The Tourist, a song from my album Solo Piano, on his mixtape. But he didn't give me credit, which was frustrating. Then I met him, and he was really charming, Bill Clinton charming, and it was clear he thought he'd done me a huge favour. And he did – the net result was very positive. He's another manifestation of the post-50 Cent, street credibility universe. He doesn't have a gangsta image, but he's still there with Nicki Minaj and Lil Wayne. Recently we went into the studio and did a little music-making together. All I want to say to him is: you're doing everything right. You invented Chilly Gonzales into your universe. Don't change a thing."

Example

Currently riding high with his lairy clubland anthems – but how can he be in this for the long haul?

"I met him, and he was – and I mean this in the most positive way, I really do – he was a real asshole. The first words out of his mouth were 'Oh Chilly Gonzales, you look so much older than in your videos'. I want to see more of that. I think as with most rappers, he'll start to show a little more of the real him over time, and that's great. We need more assholes in the music world. I count myself among them, in my own way. Let's see the prick. Let's see the asshole. Let it out."

Chilly Gonzales plays London's Koko on Thursday, visit koko.uk.com for details

Daily Mail

Tech Investors Are Taking Their Cues From Demi Moore's Twitter Feed New York Magazine In case the gonzo valuations, explosion of the secondary markets, infighting, and Wall Street's involvement aren't enough to make you question whether we're in a tech bubble, The Wall Street Journal tries one more example: how quickly an Indecent ... Demi Moore has a Britney-style wardrobe malfunctionDaily Mail all 53 news articles »

Between the Buried and Me have been at the forefront of technical metal ever since they busted out their monster full-length Alaska in 2005. They captivated their rabid fans again with Colors and The Great Misdirect as well as making a long-overdue move from Victory Records to Metal Blade. This year, BTBAM hypnotized their fans once ...

Click here to view the embedded video.

DIRTY OLD TOWN Film Trailer is a post from: SLAMXHYPE

Headlines you might have missed over the weekend!

Taking stock of the Red Sox signing 1B Adrian Gonzalez to a $154 million extension earlier this week, the Signs On San Diego's Tim Sullivan warns the deal is just the latest example of big market powerhouses keeping the little guy down.

Time for our weekly look back at the highlights here on MLBTR: After months of hearing about it, we finally saw the Red Sox sign Adrian Gonzalez to an extension. Boston's newest slugger will receive $154MM guaranteed over a seven year span. Gonzo can block trades to two teams, and acquiring teams aren't allowed to flip him to the Yankees. Here's some media reactions to Gonzalez's deal. Elsewhere in Boston, Daisuke Matsuzaka's tumultuous start has led some fans to call for a change. The Red Sox are unlikely to be trading or releasing Dice-K anytime soon, though. Boston's patience is...

Saga of a Desperate Southern California Gentleman. The seven-year contract extension signed by San Diego’s expatriate first baseman exceeds the highest price ever paid at auction for a work of art. It is worth more than the priciest of Picassos, more than the most coveted of Van Goghs. It is worth more, even, than the $140 million Mexican mogul David Martinez reputedly paid for one of Jackson Pollock’s imponderable abstracts, titled No. 5, 1948. Since it also is worth significantly more than the Padres have spent on their entire major-league payroll throughout the Obama administration, it is another sign of baseball’s troubling bifurcation between the haves and the haves-less. ...Still, that the game’s top stars continue to gravitate to a handful of high-payroll clubs is beyond dispute and, perhaps, beyond remedy. In the continuing absence of a salary cap and in the presence of escalating differences in local revenues, mid- and small-market baseball fans are reduced to window-shopping when an elite player reaches the marketplace and are often resigned to irrelevance come October.

Art from ufotable project & new Gonzo work to be presented at May 3-5 event

Talladega, Ala. -- I plead guilty in advance to the criminal amount of Gonzo journalism that's about to be spilled upon NASCAR Ranting and Raving.

You see, Trevor Bayne and I have a lot in common. Bayne got his first start in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series in 2010 at Texas and parlayed it into a limited schedule that saw the 19-year old become the youngest winner in Daytona 500 history.

His search for All Star Race sponsorship has been well-publicized and is something I very much relate to right now.

This is my first weekend reporting on NASCAR for a credentialed media outlet. I've covered open-wheel racing and short tracks but I've never something so massive. A fact that I'm reminded of each time I step out of the infield.

Television and pictures cannot do this place justice.

Like Bayne, I too am looking for "sponsorship to run the full schedule" this year in hopes of moving up to Sprint Cup full time in 2012.

This weekend is an experiment in that effort.

Back to the speedway itself - the facility is massive. Beyond the 2.66 mile racetrack is a property that spans over 3,000 acres.

The International Motorsports Hall of Fame Museum that stands just off-track reads like a history book of the sport. The machines, characters and stories enshrined speak for themselves. Like the Barber Motorsports Park and museum I visited last weekend for the IndyCar Series, Talladega is the perfect blend of both motorsports' past and future.

With both Talladega and Barber within 30 miles of each other, north Alabama is becoming quite the motorsports mecca. And with both spring race weekends within a week of each other, visiting both events is easier than ever.

Over a span of nine days, I will have seen the NASCAR Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series, ARCA, IndyCar and Indy Light, the Rolex Series and Star Mazda. That's just to name a few.

That's the last of my self-indulgence today. It's a beautiful morning for racing here at Talladega Superspeedway.

Round two of the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards has been pushed back to 8 a.m. start time on Saturday after storms canceled its Friday start. Ty Dillon and Kyle Fowler will start on the front row. A race day open thread will be posted shortly.

Every morning I'm up at the crack of dawn, and here are some of the entertainment headlines that caught my attention: In Toronto on his "Violent Torpedo of Truth" tour, Charlie Sheen -- sensing he was losing control of his drunken crowd -- decided to pander to the audience, revealing all kinds of interesting gossip.

About to premiere at Tribeca 2011 is Shinji Imaoka's pinku musical Underwater Love. Expect audiences to be confused, enthralled and - potentially - outraged.A legend in his field, director Imaoka is a sort of pinku auteur - a director of sex films that while certainly containing lots of sex also challenge the notion that sex films can only mean base pornography. The man brings a degree of art to his craft and a certain gonzo mentality that means you can never be sure what's coming next. And what's coming next from him is Underwater Love.Thirtysomething Asuka has an easy life, a job in a fish factory, and a fiancé, Taki, who's also her boss. One day, as she walks by the lake near the...

After last week’s gonzo results show, I’m assuming you American Idol fans were prepared for anything. Since is was supposedly a shock that Pia Toscano got voted off. Who could be a more shocking sendoff? Lauren? Scotty? Nah. Ya’ll can handle anything. Somehow, the pecking order seems to have been better this week. They were [...]

Like we need another Charlie Sheen story, right?

Filed under: American Idol

After last week's gonzo results show, 'Idol' fans were prepared for anything, but tonight's sendoff felt more like a listless airport 'goodbye' than a traumatic, premature separation of the kind we experienced last Thursday night.

Somehow, the pecking order seems to have been restored, for the time being. But before we get to that, in the spirit of Ryan Seacrest, let's drag things out a bit and take a look back at how the evening unfolded.

Once again the night started with Lauren Alaina and Scotty McCreery, ya'll. The two shared a Lady Antebellum song nicely, with Scotty continuing to find new, awkward ways to hold a microphone, while Lauren pranced around in a daisy yellow dress straight out of Dolly Parton's closet.

 

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Cult director Takashi Miike turned heads around the globe with his handsome samurai drama 13 Assassins, a film for which he put away his trademark gonzo style and focused instead on simply putting together a well crafted, well told story. He succeeded enormously well, the result being one of the finest samurai films in recent memory, and Miike has been on record often since talking about how much he wishes Japan's current generation of filmmakers would take the time to learn from the old masters.Well, Miike is looking to the past once again for his next picture, the Cannes selected Hara-Kiri: Death Of A Samurai (Ichimei). That this is a 3D remake of a classic picture would normally have the purists howling but the...

[First published on the w+k blog] When we first came to interview here, David Terry (Gonzo Planning Guy), asked us: what are we going to do about the culture of meanness on YouTube? What a ridiculous question, I thought. After solving for teen snark, basement troll obsessions and anonymized hating, we could just roll ahead [...]

I will start today's blog by saying Travis Yost, you kinda suck for still not explaining to me how I can link my Facebook and Twitter pages at the top of my blogs like you do. I've asked this guy to explain three times already, and nothing. It's not like he's got something better to do: His Sens are gonzo for the season. He's writing about the Ducks lately, and they came up lame in Game 1 against...

Marvel Comics and Disney Publishing are teaming to bring the Muppets gang to life in an all new giant-size comic called Disney•Muppets Presents written by Roger Langridge (Thor: The Mighty Avenger). In the story, which features Kermit, Fozzy, Miss Piggy, Gonzo, and the rest of the gang, the Muppets plan to revive their old school variety show by bringing back some of their greatest sketches, including Pigs in Space and Veterinarians Hospital. Also packed into this 96-page comic Kermit is homesick, a psychic tells Miss Piggy that she will lose something green, Fozzy attempts to revamp his stand-up act, and a lot more! [...]

by Donald Carr.

Bad federal policy and intensifying storms are washing away the rich dark soils in the Midwest that made this country an agricultural powerhouse and that remain the essential foundation of a healthy and sustainable food system in the future.

That’s the alarming finding of a new Environmental Working Group report that highlights innovative research by scientists at Iowa State University (ISU). The report is titled “Losing Ground,” and it shows in stark terms what industrial-scale crop production is doing to our soil and water in the Corn Belt.

In researching “Losing Ground,” the Environmental Working Group (EWG) filmed Iowa farmland from the air to show graphically how recent rainstorms washed away tons of soil. Working with Atlas Films, EWG produced a short video that provides stark images illustrating how federal farm subsidies and ethanol mandates, piled on top of skyrocketing crop prices, are supporting an intensive monoculture that kneecaps any hope for a more resilient and diverse food and farm system. EWG’s flights found numerous Corn Belt fields scarred by ephemeral gullies that funnel soil and toxic farm chemicals into streams and rivers before they’re plowed over again—causing damage that is not accounted for in official or even ISU’s estimates of soil erosion and runoff.

The report should be a wake-up call for policymakers and stakeholders who have been under the mistaken assumption that when it comes to soil loss, everything is more or less fine. In April 2010, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) issued a report concluding that soil erosion across Iowa, and the Corn Belt as a whole, is on average comfortably lower than the so-called “sustainable rate.” But the more precise look provided by the ISU data shows that these statewide or regional estimates mask the serious damage that larger storms cause.

By tracking erosion after every storm over a period of years, the researchers showed that some Iowa farms are losing precious topsoil up to 12 times faster than the government estimates. When storms hit vulnerable or poorly protected soil, fields sometimes lose more soil in a single day than is considered sustainable for the whole year, or even decades.

And we can’t just blame the weather. Farmers are planting fencerow to fencerow in response to high crop prices that are likely here to stay. Misguided mandates for increased corn ethanol production add fuel to the fire, and flawed government farm and insurance subsidies clear the way for all-out production—with little regard for what happens to the soil, water, and wildlife habitat.

“Losing Ground” is bad news for many reasons—the foremost being that we are sacrificing the nation’s future ability to grow food in the name of protecting today’s profits for Big Ag. Worse, federal erosion measurements are misinterpreted by industrial agriculture and its lobbyists to provide political cover to continue doing subsidized business as usual while our soil and water pay the price.

The American Farm Bureau Federation, one of the largest and most powerful groups that lobby on behalf of agribusiness, pounced on the USDA’s estimates the moment they were released in 2010:

Today’s farmers and ranchers grow more food with fewer resources. Conservation tillage is up and soil erosion is declining. As farmers and ranchers, we know this based on our experience. Now, a new report confirms this has occurred nationwide.

The 2010 National Resources Inventory (NRI) recently released by the Agriculture Department’s Natural Resources Conservation Service shows that farmers and ranchers are careful and caring stewards of our nation’s natural resources. The massive report, coupled with the latest USDA productivity figures, confirms the shrinking environmental footprint of our efforts to produce food and fiber in the United States. This is good news that should not go unreported

Bob Stallman
President, American Farm Bureau, June 2010

The National Corn Growers Association was quick to join the chorus, happy to use the data to bolster a million-dollar PR campaign.

The latest data basically gives farmer documentation for what we already knew ... growers are doing more with less; less land, less water, less crop inputs from pesticides to fertilizer, and all the while getting gonzo increases in productivity of crops like corn.

This was the very reason corn growers created the Corn Farmers Coalition (CFC) last year; to bridge the large gap between what consumers don’t know or think they know and the reality of modern, innovative farming. In the case of CFC the idea was to start small by educating decision leaders in Washington, DC because of the enormous impact Congress and other federal agencies can have on farmers either legislatively or through regulation.

Now NRCS gives us a well-deserved “A” on our environmental report card. This is a story worth telling, especially given the misleading information being spewed by some agenda driven groups. So, look for opportunities to speak up for your farm; Do it locally, tell your story online through social media, tell your elected officials. We all have a vested interest in getting this right.

The Farm Bureau and the corn growers would like members of Congress and their constituents to believe that everything is fine with the soil and water in the Midwest, with good reason: Awareness that agribusiness practices are wreaking environmental havoc would erode taxpayer willingness to continue subsidizing these practices and would invite calls for regulation of an industry that largely escapes government oversight.

For instance, non-point-source pollution—nitrates and phosphates from fertilizers slathered on farm fields to squeeze out every possible bushel—is subject to no regulation at all under the Clean Water Act. Excessive pesticide spraying over water sources is enforced by nothing more than a label on the pesticide container, and water utilities must bear most of the work and expense of removing toxic farm chemicals and other pollutants from tap water.

Still, there is good news in “Losing Ground.” The report reminds us that common sense and traditional conservation practices work. As much as 97 percent of soil loss is preventable by simple measures like planting strips of grass or trees on the edges of crop fields and along streams and the contours of hills. These practices also help limit the damage from chemicals that run off fields and into water sources. Our aerial survey revealed that some, but not nearly enough, farmers are using these and other practices to protect our soil and water. These conservation-mined farmers are living proof that profitable farming doesn’t have to come at the expense of our natural resources.

Unfortunately, however, most of the federal conservation programs that help farmers implement these practices are slated to lose funding—what looks like a $356 million cut from last year—in the current frenzy of budget cutting. And this isn’t their first visit to the chopping block. State programs aren’t faring any better.

Moreover, these programs have never been robust enough to compete with the pressure that subsidies and incentives put on America’s soil and water. Between 1997 and 2009, the government paid Corn Belt farmers $51.2 billion in subsidies to spur production, but just $7 billion to implement conservation practices. The $18.9 billion spent to subsidize the corn ethanol industry rubs salt in the wound.

Farmers love these conservation programs but are being turned away in droves for lack of funds. Commodity groups and Big Ag lobbyists are already circling the wagons to fight any cuts in traditional subsidies. They would be wise to not let the public’s benefit from agriculture program spending—improved water and soil quality from conservation programs—evaporate or any rationale for public support for commodity subsidies and propping up crop insurance will disappear along with it.

What’s needed is full and aggressive enforcement of provisions in the 1985 farm bill that require farmers who accept subsidies to use soil conservation measures on the most vulnerable cropland. But the reality, according to official reports and anecdotal evidence, is that “conservation compliance” enforcement has waned, putting at risk the real soil conservation gains that were made between 1985 and 1995.

The best part about pushing for full enforcement of conservation compliance in an era of extreme political gridlock—it’s already on the books. And if conservation compliance is properly enforced, violators should have their federal subsides revoked—a savings that goes back to the taxpayer. Conservation compliance is one way to level a playing field that currently puts conservation-minded landowners at a disadvantage.

Farmers need a safety net, but so do our soil and water.

Related Links:

Minnesota next up to pass law banning undercover farm videos

How some Iowa farmers keep the land fertile, while others salt the earth

Hungry kids and the environment hit hard by USDA budget cuts

Only in Tasmania could Mona exist – an outsider's tilt at the orthodoxies of the art establishment

I was in a dark, noisy bunker cut into a cliff, recently, on an island off an island on the edge of nowhere. It was a millionaire's plaything, an artistic game, the vulgar answer to a dirty question: imagine you became rich through your own intelligence; you owe other people nothing except the guilt that should go with wealth. What would you do?

Many, I guess, would picture spending the cash pile on good works – transferring it to Africa or paying their full share of taxes. And some really would do that; but not, in the end, everyone. What people tend to do instead with money is buy attention – and that, throughout history, has meant buying art.

Among the tasks of an art critic is to explain how something can be great art without being valuable, or valuable without being great art – that beauty or meaning can be detached from cost, and the fact that someone very rich is prepared to pay a stupid amount for an object whose creation may have involved no particular skill, and was perhaps even outsourced by the artist to others, should not affect its artistic significance. But art is also an industry. It allows the purchase of importance.

In Tasmania last month I met a man who understands this and played the game I described at the start – he was born without much, became rich, and has bought art – but who has somehow also reshaped (though not avoided) the pretension that can surround it.

It was odd, on an island that Australians regard as remote, a place to which my direct ancestors were deported as convicts and whose history is built on human and environmental destruction, to come across someone who has thrown everything at assembling a collection, built a stunning underground gallery, opened it for free and in doing all this, made modern conceptual art accessible to people who do not wear square glasses and black T-shirts.

But perhaps only at the margins of the planet is it easy to rid art of the hierarchy imposed in any place crawling with experts. In London, David Walsh's Tasmanian gallery would have had the fun kicked out of it.

Walsh is a clever nerd, drawn to maths and technology. He was born in the Hobart suburb where his Museum of Old and New Art (Mona) opened in January, and made his money by calculating schemes to bet on horses. He has a jauntily transparent, attention-seeking flair in a state capital no larger than a big town. Some Tasmanians believe he lives in a lonely estate surrounded by wild animals – and vast numbers are coming to see what he has built.

I was entranced. Mona plays a game but a smart one: a considered challenge to the structure of artistic expertise. Modern art, as much as any predecessor and much more than it pretends, adores order. The Young British Artists were anarchic within a contrived system. Walsh is brash enough to have thrown this out the window. In his gallery everything appears to have been chucked together. It takes thought to see the angrily aesthetic argument behind the seemingly random effect.

Encrusted Chinese Ming coins from a shipwreck sit between two paintings by Australia's greatest artist, Sidney Nolan. There are Egyptian artefacts, Central American carvings, and a giant bacterial machine in glass and steel stomach that changes food into something close to human shit, and smells of it. The place is huge, the exhibits endless and it ought to be a senseless catastrophe.

Instead it busts categories. Labels and white walls are replaced by iPods, noise and darkness, the units programmed to track visitors' movements and offer them the chance to click on visual commentaries that are half what Walsh calls Artwank and half gonzo subversion, offering bits of his homespun wisdom. A dark maze in digital numbers by a Hobart artist contains Mesopotanian cuneiform tablets, examples of the oldest writing to survive. What for me was the best thing in the gallery – Dreams of Migrants, a photomontage by the Chinese artist Wang Quingsong – stood out because it was not drowning among more of the same.

I don't claim to understand art, let alone the writing that surrounds it. Expertise does matter. So do aesthetics. Experts, if they eventually make the long journey – and they will – may detest Mona. But to me the place seemed more than a gimmick or a modern cabinet of curiosities burping mainstream contempt for intelligent understanding. Once Australia suffered what people called the "cultural cringe" towards Europe. Mona turns that cringe around.

Jon Henry has spent $161.4 million to win a championship. On paper the numbers project a solid run producing club. Keep in mind that Pujols and Hanley are still struggling to get going too. You needn’t look any further to realize that the season is still very young. But no other team in baseball is suffering like Boston right now. So what’s the problem in Beantown? Lets take a brief look what’s happening.

C Saltalamachia
4H/2BB/11k /29PA/ Contact 67.2%.
He’s striking out far too often to make any kind of viable impact offensively. He’s been awful, but this shouldn’t be a huge surprise to anyone. But Boston is committed to giving Salty a shot under Varitek’s direction. Many catchers are never offensive threats. He’s not going to help the cause with his bat. Hopefully Varitek can get his defense to a place where Salty can contribute something positive to the club.
Assessment OUCH!

1B Adrian Gonzalez
11H /10BB /3K /47PA /.268AVG/.270BABIP/Contact 84.5%
Gonzo is hitting, but nowhere near his past or expected production. His plate discipline has been outstanding with a 1.67 BB/K ratio (only 1 IBB). The big hits are coming. There’s absolutely nothing to worry about here.
Assessment UNLUCKY

2B Dustin Pedroia
15H/5BB/7K/47PA/.366AVG/.424BABIP/Contact 83.6%
His BABIP is unsustainable so the batting average is about to drop, but his contact rate is 7% lower than his career norm. Simply put Dustin is seeing the ball well and making good hits so far. He’s going to continue to go about his business.
Assessment: ON TRACK

SS Marco Scutaro
5H/4BB/2K/33PA/.172AVG/.185BABIP/97.7% contact
Marco is literally hitting everything in sight. It’s just always in the wrong spot when it lands. Eventually this trend is going to have to change. He may be the unluckiest hitter in the major leagues right now. He has Jed Lowrie breathing down his neck and this battle is nothing new. I’m a big advocate of moving to Jed Lowrie and giving him a shot but Scutaro has not earned the loss of his job yet.
Assessment UNLUCKY

however

Super UT Jed Lowrie
7H/2BB/1K/18PA/.438AVG/.467BABIP/88.0% contact
It’s tough to assess Mr. Lowrie because his sample size is incredibly small even compared to his teammates who have only played 2 weeks of baseball. But he is making contact, showing great plate discipline, and his batting average is in line with his BABIP. Neither one is sustainable but as they regress they should do so in unison. Jed is hitting pretty well. This kid needs to be in the lineup as much as possible right now. You can’t remove Scutaro because his luck is going to change. It’s a tough situation. Where can Francona actually play this kid on a daily basis? Once he finds Jed a place on the field he’s going to be a bright spot on this roster. I am a big believer here.
Assessment ON TRACK

3B Kevin Youklis
6H/13BB/10K/47PA/.182AVG/.261BABIP/80.3% contact
Youk hasn’t been as unlucky as his teammates listed above, but his BABIP is still lower than it should be considering he is making good contact on the ball. I had to wonder if pitchers were merely walking him to get to his struggling teammates. But he has exactly zero intentional walks to date. Since his BB/K ratio is an outstanding 1.30 right now he will be keeping pitchers honest with him.
Assessment UNLUCKY

RF JD Drew
8H/3BB/8K/31PA/.296AVG/.421BABIP/81.5% contact
Drew is actually a player on this team actually getting some luck. His BABIP over 100 points higher than his career norm but his contact rate is in line with past performance. Look for him to start struggling at some point. Drew has posted a batting average over .290 only 3 times since 1999.
Assessment LUCKY

CF Jacoby Ellsbury
7H/3BB/8K/40PA/.189AVG/.185BABIP/85.5% contact
Here we go again. High contact low AVG/BABIP. Eventually some of these balls will fall right and the numbers will follow. And Jacoby’s contact rate is about 3% lower than his career norms. The hits are coming.
Assessment UNLUCKY

LF Crawford
7H/2BB/8K/49PA/.152AVG/.184BABIP/85.6% contact
Without risk of repeating myself, Here we go again. High contact low AVG/BABIP. Eventually some of these balls will fall right and the numbers will follow. Crawford’s contact rate is about 3% higher than his career norms. The hits are definitely coming.
Assessment UNLUCKY

DH David Ortiz
11H/3BB/4K/44PA/.275AVG/.257BABIP/82.9% contact
Big Poppy is still doing his thing. His contact is 5% higher than his career norm but again this is very early to be making any of these comments to begin with. Simply put there’s nothing to worry about or see here.
Assessment ON TRACK

I have never seen a collection of hitters this strong with so much bad luck in one place. Did the Yankees give Boston the evil eye. Maybe Daisuke drank Jobu’s rum? Perhaps the pitching they have seen to date has been so outstanding that they never had a chance? Obviously I’m joking on all 3 accounts. I believe these professional hitters will be fine. They are all making good contact on the ball. I recently heard in a recent podcast that the difference between a hit and an out for a flyball was in its hang time. The difference between the two was a mere fraction of a second. It’s only a matter of time before the sparks begin to fly. What comes up must also come down. I believe the opposite to also be true. Buckle up Boston, It’s about to get fun again

LOS ANGELES (CAP) - Legendary Muppet Gonzo the Great has filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court against the Walt Disney Company, alleging that the corporation that now owns the Muppets name is not honoring agreements regarding use of that name as previously made with the Jim Henson Company.

"All my client seeks is his legal ability to make a living utilizing the name he has helped to make famous for over 35 years," said Gonzo attorney Murray Plotzky. "If Disney can't honor that, then they can pay."

According to the lawsuit, Gonzo and five of the other Muppets signed an agreement with the Jim Henson Company that stated each could tour under the name of the Muppets if any of them went longer than 18 months without either a television or big-screen production. Their last appearance was The Muppets' Wizard Of Oz, which aired in May, 2005.

At issue is whether that agreement transferred to Disney when the company bought the rights to the Muppets in 2004.

Lawyers for the Walt Disney Company would not talk on the record with CAP News, saying they don't comment on pending litigation. However, a source speaking on the condition of anonymity told CAP News that the turn of events has created some discord within Muppet camp.

"They treat us good. We all wish Gonzo had just left well enough alone," said the source. "I mean, things are so bad that Statler and Waldorf actually want me to tell jokes to lighten the mood, wocka wocka wocka."

At the advice of his lawyer, Gonzo has also refused comment. However, Gonzo confidant Camilla did express to CAP News through an interpreter that Gonzo would like the proceedings resolved as quickly as possible "so he can go back to being America's favorite blue weirdo."

No trial date for the case has yet been set.

FEAR AND LOATHING AT THE NEW YORK TIMES: “We’ve got Thomas Friedman all wrong. He’s no button-down pundit trying to explain the outside world — he’s a gonzo madman who downs unlabeled pills & describes his hallucinations. Or at least that’s one way to explain this lede.”

Hi Frank,
  Couldn't agree with you more on the PC polarity; thanks again!  I love that you looked my amp over.  I think you would agree that more people should send you their amps for a check.  Too bad freight is so much; must be that darn gonzo facep...

He was onto something, wasn't he?

Andrew Sullivan: The Prescience Of Gonzo: He was onto something, wasn't he? http://bit.ly/eoKAjg

(By @dailydish - Editor - Andrew Sullivan, Politics)

Filed under: Concerts and Tours, News, New Music, Exclusive

This week, the Meat Puppets released their buoyant, upbeat 13th album, 'Lollipop,' an excellent addition to their long and tumultuous career. But rather than looking solely ahead, the band will head to Minehead, England in May to revisit its early days with a performance of its 1985 classic 'Up on the Sun' at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival.

"It has its little place for some people. It's a pretty unique album," Curt Kirkwood, the band's guitarist and singer, tells Spinner about playing the record. "There's like three or four [songs] that I definitely gotta sit down with. Once we're up there doing it, everybody at those festivals will be out of their minds, they won't notice if we completely f--- it up."

Chris Rogers is living the dream of men around the world: He's surrounded by tools, without a boss, making gonzo machines that demolish things and sneak around with cameras.

Source : Denver Post

Bob Roth at Gonzo Banker had an amusing, yet informative, post last Friday. Bob listed his all time favorite outrageous provisions that vendors stick in their contracts with banks. He declined to follow David Letterman and listed only his top...

Let's get a little Gonzo.

This past weekend, the documentary as a tool for change was discussed at “Envision: Addressing Global Issues Through Documentary,” a forum co-sponsored by the IFP in partnership with the United Nations Department of Public Information.

In her introductory remarks, Joana Vicente, IFP’s executive director, said that the goal of the event was to unite the “filmmaking community with the activist [community].” It was a sentiment echoed by Kiyo Akasaka, the Under-Secretary-General for Communications at the UN who encouraged the activists and filmmakers in the attendance to partner with each other “to envision a better world” and “meet the needs of the world’s poorest people.”

During his keynote speech, the legendary activist and singer, Harry Belafonte cited media as one of the most powerful tools in the activist arsenal, noting that just this Spring, “little devices have connected people without apparent ideology other than a thirst for freedom, enabling people to rebel against repression.” Belafonte announced HBO as a new partner for Envision and introduced Sheila Nevins, the head of documentary programming for the channel.

Nevins presented that night’s film, The Sound of Mumbai: A Musical, a doc about a choir of children from the slums who were selected to perform at one of India’s most prestigious concert halls. Nevins praised the film’s message that “people can rise, but someone has to orchestrate it for them.” Capping the evening was a performance by the P.S. 32 Chorus, whose rousing elementary school enthusiasm left few dry eyes.

Envision spent its second day getting down to the brass tacks of how to implement change. Hugh Evans, the very young, very enthusiastic co-founder of the Global Poverty Project, encouraged the audience to join him in the pursuit of his goal “to live in a world where a child never dies due to a lack of a thirty-cent immunization.”

He reminded the audience, “in the age of fast, international travel, each one of us has a stake in preventing disease throughout the world.” It was a presentation that was as gonzo in its hope as it was convincing in its facts. Evans noted how little… Read the rest

Marvel and Disney Publishing will debut DISNEY•MUPPETS PRESENTS: MEET THE MUPPETS, a giant-sized comic featuring Kermit, Miss Piggy, Fozzy, Gonzo and the Muppet gang. Hitting stores in July 2011, this 96 page comic features stories from acclaimed writer/artist Roger Langridge … Continue reading →