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Friday, February 17, 2012
The 'Choking Game': 1 in 7 College Kids Has Tried It (Time.com)
[unable to retrieve full-text content]Time.com - The potentially lethal Choking Game, which involves cutting off the blood supply to the brain, appears to be popular with some college students who think it's not as dangerous as using illicit drugs
Kenny Loggins' Third Act: Blue Sky Riders
Call this Chapter 3 of Kenny Loggins' musical life. Typically, music-makers leave bands to try their luck as break-out soloists. In the case of two-time Grammy winner Loggins, he's the salmon swimming upstream: He already has the lucrative career as a solo artist and now he's formed a band with Nashville singer-songwriters Gary Burr and Georgia Middleman.
World, meet the Blue Sky Riders.
After 30 years of being his own boss, the 64-year-old Loggins -- who began his career as part of the iconic duo of Loggins and Messina -- says he just knew in his gut that it was time for a reinvention. Why? The "juice" was gone, he said. "I just didn't know what to write about anymore."
Scary words from the man who brought us such hits as "Celebrate Me Home" and "Footloose." And would the 70s have been the same without Loggins and Messina's "Angry Eyes" or "Danny's Song"? Loggins' list of hits stretches for miles, including those movie soundtracks for "Top Gun" and "The Tigger Movie."
Loggins, who freely bares his soul both in song and in interviews, says he winced when a trusted advisor suggested he was too old to be starting over with a new band. New bands struggle both financially and physically with grueling on-the-road demands. The music business is a difficult mistress, never satisfied, fickle at best. Did he really want that? At this point in Loggins' career, the advisor said, the singer-songwriter's interests would best be served by kicking back, working on mentoring and collaborations -- you know, phasing out gracefully.
But sometimes, our hearts speak louder than our trusted advisors. And Loggins' followed his. He teamed up with long-time friend Burr -- a soon-to-be 60 Nashville-based songwriter who is known as country music's song doctor; bring him your tired, ailing songs and he makes them, well, sing. He's also the yang to Loggins' yin, balancing the introspective artist with heavy doses of humor and pragmatism. Providing the harmony, both in the band's music and interpersonal dynamic, is Burr's fiance, Middleman, who is in her 40s.
"Is she perfectly named or what?" asks Loggins.
Their music is written in their Nashville studio or on the terrace of Loggins' Santa Barbara home. A year in the making, they are almost done recording their first album and the details of touring are being ironed out. Touring the way new bands typically must hasn't actually changed that much, but watch the Blue Sky Riders reinvent that as well.
"Let's face it," says Burr, "we aren't teenagers who are going drive around the country living out of station wagons."
Bottom line, says Loggins is that "If you are going to reinvent yourself, it has to be fun." For him, the band provides an impetus to stay creative and stay "emotionally alive." Loggins isn't totally abandoning his solo career, which right now he describes as his "day job." He plans on finishing up an album of children's songs. But his heart and soul clearly belong with the Blue Sky Riders.
"I'm constantly amazed at how focused he is on this project," said Burr. "He wakes up every day with 100 new ideas for this band." In fact, somewhere around 3 a.m. in the morning after the Grammys, where the band performed at the post-Grammy party, Loggins bolted awake in bed and blurted out something about "distribution rights."
While Loggins may have the legendary name, it's clear that he views the trio as three equal partners. Not always easy on the ego? Agreed, he said, but a necessary part of the process. It's one of those cases where the sum will be greater than its parts.
He recalls the first time he and Burr sang together. "We sounded like brothers," he said. "The last time I experienced that kind of blend was with Jimmy Messina in 1971."
Loggins will be blogging for The Huffington Post on occasion about the experience of forming a band. After five intense, exhilarating days in Nashville, during which the band performed live for the first time at Tin Pan South, Loggins wrote that he texted Burr and Middleman from the airport:
"Finally slowin' down. I am so proud of us, and treasure this 3rd chance to reinvent myself. Thank you both so much for the rush!!"
To which Burr, always the comedian, replied, "Who IS this?"
"That's just so Gary," Loggins wrote. "I howled."
Check out part one of a series of videos in which the Blue Sky Riders answer Huff/Post50's big life questions. Here, they discuss what they know now that they wish they knew growing up.
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/16/kenny-loggins-blue-sky-riders_n_1273255.html
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2012 TIRED IRON & IRON DOG - Downtown Association of ...
Blog, Events, Featured
?
2012 IRON DOG
The 2012 Iron Dog is back and ready to traverse 2,000 miles by snow machine from Big Lake, AK to downtown Fairbanks. Iron Dog teams look forward to another exhilarating?sprint to the Chena River, and race fans in Fairbanks have the best seats in the house for a world-class finish.
?We hope to be there on time this year,? jokes Kevin Kastner, Executive Director, after?heavy snow and stormy weather caused several delays in the 2011 race.
This year?s Pro Class Finish is scheduled for 1:00pm on Saturday, February 25th. This time is approximate, and race fans should check the Iron Dog website as GPS trackers?help form a close?estimate of arrival times for all teams. The race finish will be broadcast on Channel 2 KTUU through television and the KTUU website.
New for this year is the?Iron?Dog raffle, a fundraiser for?a program called?Alaska?s Healing Hearts?that serves Alaska veterans. The grand prize drawing will take place in conjunction with the Iron Dog finish on the Chena River.?Five winners?will be drawn just before the first team arrives, receiving prizes like a 2012 Polaris Rush PRO R 600, a Hawaiian vacation for two, and a year?s supply of NOS energy drinks.
The grand prize winner scores a 2012 Toyota Tundra and will be announced right after the first team cruises past the finish line. You don?t have to be present to win, but it?s much better if you are. Tickets ($60; only 2,000 available) will be sold at race headquarters at the Marriott Hotel on 1st Avenue until noon on Saturday. Fans can also call (907)563-4414 to purchase tickets.
Kevin encourages race enthusiasts to use the Iron Dog Facebook page to post videos, photos, stories, or ask questions about the race, though he cautions recreational users to avoid the river on Saturday for their safety and the safety of competitors.
Just like in years past, the Iron Dog and Tired Iron take place at the same time, allowing snow machine enthusiasts to enjoy both events simultaneously.
?We?re tied together with the Tired Iron so there will be a little racing to watch before we start that morning,? Kevin points out. Just after the Iron Dog finish, the ?Wired Iron? races for kids on?120cc sleds will heat up ? making for a full day of snow machine guts and glory.
2012 TIRED IRON
The Tired Iron is?a series of races for sled heads?who prefer ?throwback? models crafted before 1980. This year, races are schedule for Saturday, February 25th from 10:00am-3:00pm and Sunday, February 26th from 11am-3:30pm.
The Tired Iron?has a reputation for being a bit more? irreverent? than most races. Race divisions include the Jurassic Classic, a ride ?intended for sleds no faster than 25 MPH, and for drivers that still have their faculties, but not necessarily their original teeth, hips, or knees.??The Wet Iron and Fun Run, for liquid and air cooled sleds respectively,?follow a 24-mile river track and are two of the most popular.
?The Classic and the Wet Iron are getting very competitive. The most popular is the Fun Run because normal people get to get out and ride,? David comments.
Speaking of friendly competition, David says rivalries continue to grow among old-timers who have competed in Tired Iron for years. One race veteran, Urban Rahol, recently traveled to Michigan just to pick up a 1965 Polaris sled for the race. He drove it back to Fairbanks in the bed of his truck.
Discussing a recent meeting of competitors, David chuckles, ?I heard one 90+ guy about the other 90+ guy say, ?I?m cleaning his clock this year.??
Tired Iron is one of the most family-friendly events in downtown Fairbanks at this time of year, due in large part to the dozens of contests and activities hosted on the river between races. New games include Human Moose Turd Bowling, in which contestants slide down an ice track in a saucer to knock down brown bowling pins.?In another new event,?a portable restroom with door removed will serve as the?target?for a wedge shot with a golf club, and extra points go to anyone who makes it in the urinal. A Mini-Arctic Man competition for kids simulates the big race with a short ski down a small ramp, a hookup to a snow machine, and three loops around a circle at the center of the river for the grand prize.
WHERE TO PARK?
Parking is available in the lots at Immaculate Conception Church, The Big I Pub & Lounge, the courthouse, Mt. McKinley Bank, and in the parking garage, with entrance on 3rd Avenue. On-street parking is also available, and fans are welcome to use the Sadler?s parking lot on Cushman Street if others are full.
When:
Saturday,?February 25th 10:00am- 3:00pm
Sunday, February 26th 11:00am- 3:30pm
Where:
Chena River
Downtown Fairbanks
Phone:
(907)452-8671?
Related:
- 2012 Tired Iron @ Chena River
- 2012 Iron Dog @ Chena River
- CROWDING THE CHENA
- HAVE YOU HEARD?
- STARFIRE, HUS-SKI, BLIZZARD AND POLARIS: ALL ARE WINNERS IN THE 2010 TIRED IRON
Source: http://downtownfairbanks.com/events/2012-tired-iron-iron-dog/
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Thursday, February 16, 2012
Marchesa shows elaborate red-carpet creations (AP)
NEW YORK ? A-listers, place your orders. Marchesa is now accepting gown requests for the Oscars.
The collection that designers Georgina Chapman and Keren Craig turned out Wednesday at their New York Fashion Week runway show at the Plaza Hotel had the audience mesmerized ? mostly wondering how the models moved in such elaborate creations.
The designers said in their notes that the inspiration was a portrait painting from 1879: William Adolphe Bourgueraus' "A Soul Brought to Heaven."
They had to show a picture of it to have it all make sense, but once the first gown appeared on the runway ? a cream-colored, hand-embroidered coat with mermaid-hem pleated tulle gown ? the crowd seemed captivated.
From there, they moved into even more elaborate designs, including a champagne-colored gown with feathers that seems to float between the layers of tulle and another strapless feathered dress that looked as if it floated in with the clouds.
"Each dress is my favorite," said Chapman a few days before the show. "You look at something for a while and get used to it, and then the new thing becomes your favorite, but what I love is how it all comes together."
There was little here for the normal folks who go about their daily lives without a red carpet, but one can dream. The concept and craftsmanship Chapman and Craig have evolved is something to marvel at.
It would be a shame if the finale piece, a gown with red embroidery on an otherwise sheer bodice with a high neck and a hand-draped taffeta ballskirt, wasn't seen again.
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US officials tie terror group to Syrian bombings (AP)
WASHINGTON ? Top U.S. intelligence officials told Congress Thursday that al-Qaida of Iraq was likely behind a series of bombings against the Syrian regime in recent months.
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said bombings against security and intelligence targets in Damascus and Aleppo bear "all the earmarks of an al-Qaida-like attack", leading the U.S. intelligence community to believe the Iraqi militant branch is extending its reach into Syria. Al-Qaida of Iraq is one of al-Qaida's largest regional affiliates.
He added that Syrian opposition groups may have been infiltrated by al-Qaida, likely without their knowledge. Clapper said the lack of a unified opposition group could leave a power vacuum that extremists could fill if the Syrian government falls, a potential development he called "troubling," because Syria has an extensive network of chemical weapons sites.
Defense Intelligence Agency chief Lt. Gen. Ronald Burgess added that it appears "the al-Qaida like attacks" were likely caused by elements already inside the country, and that the U.S. intelligence community had not yet detected "a clarion call to outsiders" to join the cause.
He made no mention of the video released by core al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri over the weekend, calling on Muslims to support Syrian rebels.
The officials also told Congress that if Iran is attacked over its alleged nuclear weapons program, it could respond by closing the Strait of Hormuz to ships and launch missiles at regional U.S. forces and allies.
Burgess tells senators Iran is unlikely to initiate or intentionally provoke a conflict.
Clapper says it's "technically feasible" that Tehran could produce a nuclear weapon in one or two years, if its leaders decide to build one, "but practically not likely."
He says recent diplomatic outreach by Iran to European diplomats could indicate that officials there are reconsidering the program.
Both men say they do not believe Israel has decided to strike Iran. Clapper said he would be meeting with Israeli officials soon to discuss the matter.
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Revealing paternity with Maury Povich and friends (AP)
STAMFORD, Conn. ? Behind a backstage door, Maury Povich leafs through papers and listens to his producers brief him on that day's paternity mysteries. He checks the pronunciation of a name or two, tries to get straight which man is claiming a childhood testicular injury. Then he's ready.
"Let's play the game," the veteran TV personality says as he rises and heads toward the door.
A couple of turns down a hallway later, he steps onto a stage filled with women dancing to "Sexy and I Know It" over the loudspeaker. A roar of recognition greets him. Maury's people.
In the post-Oprah Winfrey daytime world, these are good days to be Maury Povich, who shares with Jerry Springer and Steve Wilkos a studio converted from a theater 45 miles northeast of New York. His show has its best ratings in five years. "Maury" is the top talk show among young viewers.
Of course, talk show is a general term here. What Povich does is more specific. A backstage whiteboard reveals that most upcoming shows are about establishing paternity through DNA tests or smoking out cheating spouses with the help of a lie detector. Ads soliciting future participants also detail the subject matter: "Do you believe the man you're in love with is cheating on you? If so, call Maury" and "Do you believe your boyfriend or husband is having sex with one of your family members? If so, call Maury."
"Maury" clearly gets some interesting phone calls. Not to judge harshly, but if you're sitting onstage in front of a hooting, hollering audience waiting for Povich to pull a piece of paper from a manila envelope and tell you who the father of your child is, your life has probably taken a couple of wrong turns.
To Povich's good fortune, there's an inexhaustible supply of people who don't mind telling cringe-worthy stories about themselves.
"Maury" is a milder version of what Springer does ? no flashing or free-for-alls ? but is no different from the type of program that 15 years ago drew end-of-civilization media attention.
Now they essentially exist in a vacuum. Nobody notices except regular fans.
"I haven't heard from (corporate bosses) NBC in a long time about the content on my show," Povich said. The show makes money, and there's a more liberal view of what is acceptable on television today. "In terms of what's on cable, we're kind of tame," he said.
What was once shocking now seems routine, said Walter Podrazik, curator for the Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago. Turn down the sound and you'd be hard-pressed to know whether you're watching a rerun of Povich or Springer from a dozen years ago, he said.
It was around that time that Povich did his first paternity show with DNA testing. Now they're a staple, four stories each hour. It's a parlor game: A woman wakes up naked in bed next to her husband, memory foggy from a wild party the night before. The man's best friend, also naked, wakes up on a futon at the foot of the bed. Who's the daddy?
"There was an argument back then that if you beat people over the head with the same thing, they'd get tired of it," Povich said. "Well, guess what? The opposite is true. They want it more. They want DNA more. They want lie detectors more. They want crazy teenagers so that they can realize they're not as bad as some of those other people out there. When we narrowed our focus, the more popular we became."
Povich is also convinced a snap decision he made for the first paternity show pays dividends now. He learns the back stories of his guests but doesn't peek at the results. He finds out the real father when he opens the envelope onstage. Povich said that enables him to better ask questions he thinks the audience wants to know.
Povich was a longtime broadcast journalist in Washington before entering the syndicated world. He owns a newspaper in Montana, where he has a home with his wife, TV journalist Connie Chung. His $1 million gift last year to his alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania, established a fund for journalism programs. His dad was the legendary Washington Post sportswriter Shirley Povich. He knows his way around big-name media circles.
Yet since he went to "A Current Affair" in 1986, Povich knows he's going to get some disapproving looks from other guests at snooty cocktail parties. That's when he heads to the kitchen, or talks to the bartender. His people.
He said he's always wanted to tell stories, and still does. If people look down on him for doing that, he looks down on them.
"Inside, I'm telling these people, `You don't know me,'" he said. "I could be like you for the rest of my life. I just decided not to be. I could be one of your elite journalists. For Christ's sake, I was for a long time. It's not the end-all and be-all. It never was."
Sometimes it bothers Chung. She'll say to her husband that no one knows anymore that he was a good reporter and writer. They don't remember what he did before refereeing shouting matches between estranged spouses.
"I always say, `It doesn't matter, honey, as long as you know,'" he said. "Who cares?"
One night while driving in a Midwestern city with some golf buddies, Povich got lost in a dicey part of town. He stopped at a convenience store for directions, and his fearful friends locked the car doors behind him. A few minutes later, Povich emerged laughing and talking with three men thrilled that their favorite talk-show host had paid a visit.
Fit at age 73, Povich is signed for another season after this, the show's 14th year. He expects he'll keep going beyond that.
And why not? He works seven months a year, a couple of days a week. There's a little commute from Manhattan, but not bad. It's a safe bet that he makes more money a year than his studio audience at any taping. The entire audience. Combined.
A friend recently tut-tutted Povich about the show, shaking his head and saying he wouldn't do it for a million dollars.
Povich's eyes twinkled as he recalled his response.
"I said, `Neither would I.'"
___
Online:
http://www.mauryshow.com/
___
EDITOR'S NOTE ? David Bauder can be reached at dbauder"at"ap.org or on Twitter (at)dbauder.
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Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Has MLB found its Linsanity?
February 15, 2012, 9:07 am
This did not occur to me when it should have, which is
not unusual, but watching Jeremy Lin up his own ante yet again Tuesday
night in Toronto caused the small Christmas-tree-sized bulb signifying a
freshly-hatched half-formed idea to illuminate itself overhead late
last night.
Football has The Tebow. Basketball has The Lin. Baseball has to find its own now. And frankly, the team best positioned to make this otherworldly play is the downtrodden?est of all, your Oakland Athletics.
The Elephants have chosen as a management strategy to beat themselves with tire chains for the past six years waiting for a new stadium to magically appear in San Jose. Between that and some odd hires and personnel decisions, the most spirited arguing about the team this year has been reduced to whether it can reach the magical 70-win mark.Enter Yoenis Cespedes, the likeliest new gift from our galactic overlords.
He fits the twin profiles of Tim Tebow and Jeremy Lin for extraterrestrial arrivals. He toiled in Cuba, which is much further away from the mainstream baseball firmament than it should be, for political reasons. He made his name putting up very good but difficult-to-translate numbers in the Cuban league, and a workout tape that made him seem more Borg than human. He was a much-desired commodity among teams that typically throw money around, only to fall to the team still working on the barter system.
If you replace Cuba with Yale, the workout tape with the combine, Cuban baseball with the SEC and the Ivy League, and throw in the A?s as the once-proud but since-modest operation to compare with the Broncos and Knicks . . .
Well, okay. Maybe you have to squint to do it, but there is good reason to wonder why football, which doesn?t need Tebowmania to make its monthly nut, or basketball, which just went to the trouble of closing up shop to break its union, got help from another planet while baseball has to do with Earthlings alone.
And the answer is, it doesn?t.
Now we grant you there is some pretty fevered mythmaking going on with Tebow and Lin, to the point where they are now almost pitted against each other in a ?Whose Phenomenon Is Better?? reality show. Somewhere, an attractive female celebrity is being warmed up in the bullpen as a potential romantic interest for Lin, since the Knicks were for a time the Kardashians? Stop-And-Shop, and because Tebow was linked for a time in a huge and ultimately untenable stretch with Katy Perry.
But as the Internet has shown us time and again, there is plenty of frantic off-your-meds hyperbole to go around for everyone, and logic suggests that if football, which didn?t need Tim Tebow, got him, and basketball, which just devalued its labor stock, got Lin, why baseball, which has had labor peace for decades now, can?t have its.
Of course, golf had Tiger, but that gift has been spent, and tennis runs through its best at a faster and faster pace. And hockey . . . well, it has plenty of teams in need, lots of unlikely places from which to unearth a Kryptonian spaceship crashed in the woods, and Edmonton has had the two most recent tries in Taylor Hall and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, but we?re getting off the topic here.
This is baseball?s chance to get its piece of ?Eureka!? action, and Cespedes seems the logical choice. I mean, we?d say the Mets because they?re so laughably destitute, but any good player to emerge from there would be tagged and bagged as part of the Madoff lawsuit, and it?s hard to get lyrical about that. Kansas City and Pittsburgh could use a nice jump-start too, but there?s only so much paranormal intervention a sport is entitled to ? one to a customer seems the current ratio.
So, with full knowledge that Lins and Tebows are best formed from accident and circumstance, and that predicting the next one is the same as dooming the next one, let us propose Yoenis Cespedes anyway. He fits the profile, and we haven?t had a healthy round of ?What Athlete X?s Rise To Fame Means To Me? stories in what, 17 hours?
Ray Ratto is a columnist for CSNBayArea.com
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