When I decided last week that I'd attend Saturday's Black Party—the 34th annual iteration of it, and my first—I reached out to some friends to gauge their interest level or otherwise get their reactions.
A school in the UK has banned its cafeteria staff from feeding students triangle-shaped flapjacks after one pupil suffered a "sore eye" during a recent food fight.
Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss are the two identical twins from whom Mark Zuckerberg stole the idea for Facebook while they were all students at Harvard, in order to get rich and have sex with women, as depicted in the 100% true documentary The Social Network. The only reason anyone has heard of the Winklevii is because of their constant whinging and carrying on and winning multimillion dollar settlements over Mark Zuckerberg's betrayal. But now they would like to move on from their storied role as the world's most successful losers.
A photo allegedly showing an infant child locked inside a car in New Zealand has shocked many, but police say they don't intend to investigate the matter any further.
Last week songwriter Tracey Thorn, who's best known for her work in the musical duo Everything But the Girl, released her memoir, Bedsit Disco Queen: How I Grew Up and Tried to Be a Pop Star in the U.S. It's a witty and charming chronicle of a career full of happy accidents and success found in the least likely of places — like clubland, which the formerly acoustic-based duo took by storm in 1995 when legendary house producer Todd Terry remixed their "Missing" and the results yielded a global smash.
Jake Moran, better known to fans of gluttony and greed as that guy who wouldn't share his ice cream with his girlfriend during last week's Pacers-Magic game, appeared on this morning's Good Morning America with his eminently forgiving significant other Georgia Arnett to discuss the motivation behind the snub seen round the world.
After Ann Curry was unceremoniously fired from The Today Show last year, nugget-headed everyman cohost Matt Lauer was demonized as the driving force behind her ouster. But did Lauer really deserve to become morning TV's most hated man? According to a new New York magazine profile by Joe Hagan... yes, he kind of did.
The musical equivalent of the Hatfields and McCoys burying the hatchet (or Itchy and Scratchy burying the butcher knife) occurred Saturday night when Oasis' Noel Gallagher joined Blur's Damon Albarn and Graham Coxon onstage at London's Royal Albert Hall for the Teenage Cancer Trust benefit show. Rock legend Paul Weller (of the Jam, among things) and poet Michael Horovitz also shared the stage. They played Blur's 1999 single "Tender," one of the happiest sad songs ever written.
Gawker's Rich Juzwiak and Victor Jeffreys II attend the 34th annual Black Party at the Roseland Ballroom.
A late-night agreement between European finance ministers and the government of Cyprus will keep Cyprus in the eurozone and bail out the struggling island nation—by levying an enormous one-time tax on the biggest deposits in one of its banks. Under the deal, the Cyprus Popular Bank, or Laiki, will be divided into a "good" bank and a "bad" bank; the Goofus will be slowly wound down and closed while the Gallant will be folded into the country's largest bank, Bank of Cyprus. Deposits of over 100,000 euros in both banks will be subject to a haircut of as much as 30 percent—but unlike last week's controversial proposed plan, this deal will not tax smaller depositors. The Cyprus bailout deal has been difficult to reach for a variety of reasons, chief among them the country's desire to preserve its banking sector, the engine of its economy, and the eurozone's desire to punish the Russian oligarchs widely believed to be the largest depositors in Cyprus' banks. ("In my view, the stealing of what has already been stolen continues," Russian President Dmitri Medvedev said in response to the latest deal.) This bailout agreement should allow Cyprus to (sort of) remain in the eurozone (against the wishes of the majority of its citizens; "luckily," no one in Cyprus is voting on the package) and eventually recover its banking income without directly taking money from the little guy—but years of enforced austerity will hurt him just as badly. No one's happy. At least they're less unhappy than they were last week? [Telegraph | QZ | Reuters]
This has been a big month for prominent politicians coming out in favor of gay marriage. First, Bill Clinton publicly disavowed the anti-gay marriage bill he signed into law in 1996. One week later, it was Republican Senator Rob Portman's turn, and just two years after his own son came out as gay. Then, last week, it was Hillary Clinton, which was surprising only because she hadn't already made such an announcement. And now Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill has announced her support, and via Tumblr, no less.
For the past several days, The Today Show has been hyping an "exclusive interview" with Jerry Sandusky set to air Monday morning. In this interview, The Today Show says, the convicted child rapist will "speak out for the first time since he went to prison." Sounds like NBC landed a(n ethically questionable) scoop right? Not so much, except for the ethically questionable part. Instead of interviewing Sandusky themselves, NBC is instead airing an excerpt of conservative filmmaker John Ziegler's documentary, The Framing of Joe Paterno.
Mississippi state Representative Jessica Upshaw was found dead Sunday morning at the home of another Mississippi politician, according to the Clarion Ledger. Simpson County Sheriff Kenneth Lewis said Upshaw died from a single gunshot wound to the head, though he noted it's too early in the investigation to know if the wound was self-inflicted or if foul play was involved.
