Boasting chiseled square jaw lines, prominent cleft chins and severe bouts of nasty attitudes, punk and metal legend Glenn Danzig, and Real Housewife of New York Bethenny Frankel share more than coincidental genetic traits — indications show that they may in fact be brother and sister.
Much like Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia, they may well have been separated at birth; one child flirting with paranormal powers bordering on the Dark Side while rebelling against the firm clutches of the establishment (some of us would not be surprised if Darth Vader fathered Glenn), the other truly acting like an entitled princess and continually seeking acceptance and adoration from the masses.
Not only do they look like brother and sister, they share many of the same qualities and personality traits — for better or worse — that reveal an undeniable link that points to imminent siblinghood.
Between crass consumerism, headaches from participating in crass consumerism, news about another bailout to the nation’s richest 1%, and another baseball off-season dominated by reckless spending by the Yankees and Red Sox, there are plenty of reasons to greet this season with a resounding “bah humbug.”
It’s that time of year again. No, I’m not talking about Super Bowl, summer, or Shark Week. I’m talking about Christmas – the most horrible time of the year. Why, you ask? It’s a rare opportunity for the collective greed and gluttony in America to openly feast upon the less fortunate, laying bare the myth of the so-called American Dream directly before our television-glazed eyes in a move of audacious hypocrisy.
In light of recent events unfolding on several fronts, this year’s orgy has been rendered even bitterer than years past. The wealthy just received their Christmas gift a few weeks early by one of the most unlikely St. Nicks—alleged champion of the middle class, “Democratic” President Barack Obama—in the form of continued tax cuts (unpaid for, over the next two years). Couple that with impending budgetary cuts to services upon which poor, working and middle class families rely, the Ebenezer Scrooge contingent have much to celebrate this hallowed holiday season. Working class slobs will be called upon yet again to shoulder the burden, make sacrifices, and continue to spend money at Christmas to “keep the economy afloat.” That’s code language for “keep the rich wealthy.”
I don’t want to delve too much into the politics of the Bush-Obama Tax Holiday for the richest 1 percent of Americans. I should have known better than to think Mr. Hope and Mr. Yes We Can was anything but another in a long line of smooth-talking politicians willing to disregard the populace who assisted in putting him into office in favor of those that truly punched his ticket to the White House—the ultra-wealthy campaign donors. No, this was beyond the realm of reason or explanation for a guy with his supposed reform agenda. But to avoid going off on a tangent of dumbfounded rage, let’s move on. There are plenty of other examples that occur each year to sufficiently quash the holiday spirit.
From Slayer to the Symphony and many others in between, we've seen it all in 2010. Most importantly, these experiences reveal similarities and differences of all live music events, bringing out the best and worst in all of us.
2010 was another good year for live music. Many of us have seen at least a few shows here or there, and some of us have spent more time in front of towering stacks of PA speakers than with the very persons we claim to love. While tastes and genres may vary from show to show, there are a few undeniable truths and dynamics present at almost every club, concert hall or arena — no matter who is playing that night. The live music experience is defined — and measured — by the way fans react to the performance, and music of any kind has the ability to trigger piloerection (that means to make the hair on the back of your neck stand up, not what those of you with your mind in the gutter might think).
There are also many differences in the way people “do” things at a concert that, when compared to audience behavior and etiquette twenty years ago, seem odd, out of the element, or extremely annoying. In this article, I will reflect on some of the more memorable shows of 2010 and examine the good, bad, and lessons learned over the course of the past year in concert-going. Some phenomenons are present across various genres and types of shows, yet each show retains a unique nuance that serves as the sole fleeting memory of what transpired on any given night. And some of these phenomenons just plain kick ass.
First, let’s examine an item of ubiquity sure to be present at each and every concert, no matter how big or small: the video camera phone.
Small town white populations are overtaking urban black communities’ long-running dominance in creating ridiculous names–and spellings–for their children
In grade school spelling tests, it used to be that even the most underdeveloped children were sure to get at least one answer right: their name. Now that the new wave of millennium babies have risen to the ranks of schoolchildren, their mothers and fathers have placed that trusted notion in serious jeopardy.
Even this guy thinks some parents are "morans" for giving their children odd names.
Parents, in a blatant self-aggrandizing fury, have radicalized the way Americans name their offspring. They seem to have deserted tradition altogether, scoffing at tried-and-true names found in centuries of literary richness and even Biblical reference, and are opting to hatch titles for their little ones that are better fit for science fiction or strip club nomenclature.
Growing up, many of us might remember the old joke about how people in China name their babies by throwing a fork down the stairs and using the phonetic clanging sounds to string a name together (e.g., Ching Chang Chong, etc). Maybe a funny thing to laugh off as you wait in line for school lunch in 4th grade, but I assume that it still rattles the funny bones of the same parents who “creatively” name the unripened fruit of their loins. Little do they know, the joke’s on them.
As the University of Utah Prepares to face TCU in one of the most important football games in school history, we look back to the evolution from coming up short in the 1980s to flirting with superiority in 2010.
When No. 5 University of Utah lines up to face No. 3 Texas Christian University on Saturday afternoon in Salt Lake City, the stakes will have never been higher for either team. The winner stands to firmly entrench itself near the apex of college football rankings and could have at least an outside shot at playing for the BCS Championship. Utah has never been ranked higher during regular season play and Utes fans are already in a frenzy, impatiently counting down the minutes to the kickoff of what is already being called the most important regular season game in school history.
Saturday’s faceoff will feature two evenly-matched teams that have both dominated the Mountain West Conference for the past several years. TCU is a defensive powerhouse, allowing only 217 yards per game and good enough for NCAA’s top spot in that category. Utah has the third-highest scoring offense in the country, averaging more than 45 points a game. Granted, both teams’ schedules have not featured many tough opponents, so you can throw these stats out the window.
Utah QB Jordan Wynn will need to deliver a clutch performance to defeat TCU on Saturday.
The key to the game will be whether Utah’s defense can slow TCU long enough for sophomore quarterback Jordan Wynn and the Ute offense to get on track. Outcomes are always uncertain and this game could easily go both ways. What is certain, however, is that this game is absolutely HUGE. For both teams. Should Utah win, they could (potentially) ascend to an unimaginable height that no longtime Utes fan ever fathomed: a (potential) legitimate shot for a National Championship.
* “potential” used so as not to jinx anything before Saturday; also used to diffuse the likely snub by the Almighty BCS Committee
They also have the rare chance to go on their own Crusade of sorts by defeating football teams from religious institutions in three of their next four games (Texas Christian, Notre Dame and Brigham Young).
But to really understand what this season and the previous undefeated campaigns in 2004 and 2008 means, you have to look at the history of gut-wrenching defeat that defined Utah Football for decades to truly appreciate the current position of Ute players and fans.
In an attempt to relax my nerves for the big game on Saturday and look at it from a big-picture perspective, I took a trip down memory lane to the days when simply beating rival BYU made the season a success; moving to the 1990s, when getting an invitation to a bowl game was a giant step; and onto the new millennium, where Utah has ascended to heights I could never have imagined.
So before we fully focus on beating TCU and the potential glistening shores that we face—and have frequented in recent years—let’s gaze back upon the black-water morass and revisit the rise to where we sit today.
13 Shades of Grey 