Thursday, 17 June 2010

HA!

South Africa can't afford World Cup

South Africa is in the throes of unprecedented euphoria following the start of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. This should come as no surprise given the historic nature of South Africa's hosting of an event of this magnitude, and the fact that the country will be the focal point of the world for the duration of the tournament.
That South Africa was considered to have the capacity to stage the tournament, and appears ready to do so, is plainly cause for national pride.
However, while FIFA will receive more than twice the amount of television licence fees than from the World Cup held four years ago in Germany, South Africa will not receive one cent of those revenues.
The reality is that South Africa has engaged in expenditure that it could not afford and can never recover.
Given FIFA's claims that it is time to give back to Africa, a simple principle should surely follow -- that in conscience, FIFA accepts that it should not take more out of a tournament in Africa than it took out of Germany. An appropriate endorsement of that principle would be for FIFA to commit its enhanced returns in 2010 to the funding of South Africa's new stadiums, thereby allowing for corresponding resources to be spent in areas of critical need.
When South Africa secured the right to host the World Cup, it did so on the basis that, subject to upgrade in certain cases, its established and world-renowned stadiums were adequate. Somewhere along the way, plans to use existing facilities were abandoned, as those in power determined that they should demonstrate that South Africa could build bigger, better, more modern, and more expensive stadiums than any country on earth...

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Craig Tanner @'The Hamilton Spectator'

Garry Shider RIP

Garry Shider of P-Funk fame dies at 56

Rafael Benitez tells Gillett and Hicks: Listen to Liverpool FC fans and pick Dalglish

Vuvuzelas in 1926?

Takei Takeo, cover for issue of Kodomo no kuni (Children's Land), 1926

also see: Takei Takeo Lab of Ornithology and Children's Day in Japan, 1936

@'A Journey Round My Skull'

Hmmm!

This is what you get when you google image
'Mona Street'!!!

Worst Case Scenario on Gulf Spill?

HA!

(Thanx Michael!)

Fuct!

Delicate patterns in the sea breaking on Orange Beach, Alabama, more than 90 miles from the BP oil spill, cannot distract from the mess four to six inches deep on parts of the shore

Photographer: Dave Martin/AP

@'The Guardian'

Sex, drugs and moral goals: Study of reproductive strategies and recreational drug use

Buzz!

This was the best thing MTV ever produced!

Beck Recruits Thurston Moore and Tortoise for Next Record Club

Beck's Record Club project-- in which he enlists friends to cover an entire album in a day, then posts the results to his website-- stands as a consistently fascinating ongoing project. At the moment, we're almost done hearing the version of the INXS album Kick that Beck did with St. Vincent, Liars, and Os Mutantes. And now Time Out Chicago reports that Beck has lined up the collaborators for his next Record Club project: Tortoise and Thurston Moore.

According to Time Out, Tortoise visited Beck's studio last weekend, while they were touring the West Coast. The Sonic Youth leader also checked in. No word yet on what album they might've covered or when we'll get to hear it, but Tortoise bassist/guitarist Douglas McCombs tells Time Out that the assembled luminaries played a "broad spectrum of music that was sort of appropriate."
While you let this news percolate, check out St. Vincent's Annie Clark singing the INXS jam "Never Tear Us Apart" as part of the current Record Club project, because damn.

@'Pitchfork'