My good friend Melfi put it nicely: “Was that the State of the Union last night, or Def Policy Jam?”
I’ll leave the hard-hittin’ Obama analysis to the real politicos. All I have to say about the speech - who was smart enough to DVR the SOTU while watching, affording them the chance to rewind and watch him say “that’s how budgeting works!” a myriad of times? (This guy!)
With my informed takeaways so blatantly and obviously limited, let me offer you this…Five Obama Pump Up Tracks For 2010!
Brief update on the gutting situation at the old Giants stadium - not in reference to Rotund Rex per say - as the Jets and Giants get set to move into an enormous new building next year.
According to the ad, the unit is in excellent shape and was used by both teams during games for injuries, physical exams for Giant players, World Cup Soccer, College football games and all other events which required diagnostic imaging services.
Not sure how old it is, but it looks old.
So if you know any lucrative radiologists - they want 4 Gs for this bad sally - who are looking to wow their patients with fun facts like, this is where Dave Meggett got screened after Bill Romanowski tried to rip his finger off, pass it along.
I wonder if the people behind the Garmisch Ski Resort’s bid to be part of the 2018 Olympic site have heard of Allianz, the German insurance firm who made a bid for the naming rights of the new Giants/Jets stadium who were nixed after it was discovered that they had ties to the Nazis? The Garmisch must not have, if they actually believe that their Olympic bid is going to work.
Times Online (UK) reports that the Bavarian ski resort, which lies in a town that in the 1930s was “rabidly anti-semitic,” and had to undergo “a comprehensive clean-up to present the sunny face of Nazi Germany” (????) before the 1936 Summer games in Germany, will be part of the proposal that the German delegation will bring forth next month in Vancouver as part of a bid for Munich to be the 2018 host of the Olympics.
On the surface, Garmisch resembles a typical picture postcard Alpine community, with wooden chalets, flower tubs and the ice-clad Zugspitze mountain looming over the valley, and it is still proud of the last time that it was the site of a Winter Olympics -1936.
In the 1930s, though, the town was rabidly anti-Semitic, so much so that worried sports managers ordered a cover-up lest bad publicity jeopardise the success of the Summer Olympics in Berlin which Hitler wanted to be a showpiece of Aryan superiority.
The organiser of the summer Olympics, Carl Diem, visited Garmisch in 1935 and did not like what he saw. Nazi party rallies were stirring up hatred against Jews, he said, and the anti-Semitic newspaper “Der Stuermer” was on sale everywhere.
Definitely the best plan I’ve heard since I heard about the All-American Basketball Alliance yesterday.
And interestingly enough, the key player in this bid is Willy Bogner, who’s father delivered the Olympic oath in the presence of Adolf Hitler.
If this works out, it’s not going to make Oprah’s unsuccessful stumping for Chicago look that good.
Mostly posting this to remind everyone that Andy Gray is killin’ it with the SI Vault Twitter. If you’re not following, you’re missing out on an epic stream of classic sports content from the Sports Illustrated photo, er…vault.
Even though the festival site looks like a barren desert, the grounds are somehow dubbed the Empire Polo Club.
Goldenvoice, the company organizing the event, also runs All Points West festival.
So you’re saying there’s a chance that Gorillaz could be headlining an East Coast festival too?
Rolling Stone reports, just one day after Gorillaz were named the Saturday night headliner of Coachella, the first single ‘Stylo’ off the band’s upcoming third album leaked on YouTube, here it is:
As the Google search above begs, hit the poll at the bottom and let me know what you think about this track.
Trying to figure out his angle here. Because the Ian Mackaye that I know would avoid like the plague anything with even a tinge of corporate sensibility. So, what exactly is he doing in a web series called D.I.Y. America that’s produced by Nike’s ad agency, Wieden+Kennedy?
Along with Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore and some of the old school of skating’s finest, Mackaye is featured in an episode (or part of one) called Skate & Create, which “explores “the skaters’ gaze”— the way a skateboarder looks at the urban environment in a completely different way from others.”
It’s not bad - not nearly as clownish as the phrase skaters’ gaze would suggest - but I thought you were militant about this sort of thing, Mackaye? After all, it’s called D.I.Y. America, yet the video is only available on W+K’s website here?
I’m sure he had his reasons, still, I’d like to think of Ian Mackaye like this: on a budget stage performing a $5 show.
H/T to Nah Right for the first blog post on this. Read Wyclef’s statement below, then go donate at Yele.org…
NEW YORK—The following is a statement by Wyclef Jean on today’s magnitude 7.0 earthquake outside Port-au-Prince, Haiti: “Haiti today faced a natural disaster of unprecedented proportion, an earthquake unlike anything the country has ever experienced.
The magnitude 7.0 earthquake – and several very strong aftershocks – struck only 10 miles from Port-au-Prince.
I cannot stress enough what a human disaster this is, and idle hands will only make this tragedy worse. The over 2 million people in Port-au-Prince tonight face catastrophe alone. We must act now.
President Obama has already said that the U.S. stands ‘ready to assist’ the Haitian people. The U.S. Military is the only group trained and prepared to offer that assistance immediately. They must do so as soon as possible. The international community must also rise to the occasion and help the Haitian people in every way possible.”
Many people have already reached out to see what they can do right now. We are asking those interested to please do one of two things: Either you can use your cell phone to text “Yele” to 501501, which will automatically donate $5 to the Yele Haiti Earthquake Fund (it will be charged to your cell phone bill), or you can visit Yele.org and click on DONATE.
Haiti needs your prayers and support.
I was literally going to book a trip to the Dominican Republic for next month today - the island borders Haiti and felt some of the shock of yesterday’s 7.0 earthquake. Over the past month, we trip advisor’d in full all the resorts on the island, and were seriously going to make the arrangements tonight. Now, I’ll most likely have to find a new vacation destination. What’s worse, is this would be considered a top-five problem in my life at the moment, and it’s not even a real problem. I feel guilty relating it to this, but I think that if more people remind themselves of the sh#t they’ve got to deal with in their lives, and likewise realize how fortunate they truly are that their problems are so minuscule, then maybe we’ll get a bigger response on this.
