• Affluenza: Ho-Supermanning rapper Soulja Boy is taking a little heat for his video, "Rich Nigga Shit," in which he blows his nose on money, rides a Segway across his living room, and shamelessly steals a line from Chappelle's Show.
• Massively multiplayer election: Soon Microsoft and Rock the Vote will enable X-Box Live players to register to vote and discuss politics on their game consoles. Which will make the campaigns look even more like Warcraft.
• Florida's bad day: Tropical Storm Fay gave the state's northeast region another flooding scare today, forcing more residents to evacuate their homes.
New York's Grub Street blog adds that one of the terminal's soon-to-be-opened eateries, Michael Schulson's Asian spot Deep Blue, "is meant to make you feel cocooned in water." Confidential to Michael: Not sure that's a feeling you want to instill in people about to get on a plane.
To the ever-evolving world of unlikely musical collaborations, add LL Cool J and Bon Jovi ax-man Richie Sambora. The rehabbed rocker lent his shredding prowess to the grandfather of hip-hop's newest album, Exit 13 (out Sept 9), his last under his 22-year recording contract with Def Jam. What's not so peculiar, though, and in keeping with this year's fiery political torch lit by Kanye West and Nas before him, is an angsty solo track directed at President Bush, called "Mr. President."
The New York Daily Newshad some of the lyrics, but early this week at a recording studio Radar chatted with the rapper about one verse in particular:
Anyone who has spent some time watching the 3,600 hours of Olympics coverage foisted upon us this summer is no doubt aware of the Games' dirty little secret: a good deal of the competitions are total bullshit. No matter how forcefully NBC tries to say that beach volleyball is an athletic endeavor worthy of our time, it doesn't change the fact that it's mostly a ritualistic ass-slapping ceremony better left to the oiled-up hardbodies of Venice Beach. (Which isn't to say it doesn't require raw athleticism. It does. But so does running the Gauntlet in American Gladiators, and I don't see Wolf in Beijing.)
A North Korean defector has written a new memoir about his days as Kim Jong-Il's teacher, and it reportedly portrays the North Korean president as not necessarily the great guy and super-nice dictator that everyone says he is. In fact, it kind of makes him look like a murderous Hitler-esque monster who just might blow up his old school and kill his teacher's entire freaking family. Some supporting data points after the jump:
READ MORE >> Olympic Shames
Remember those tumbly little liars the Chinese girls' Olympic gymnastics team? Yeah, them. Just desserts are heading their way, people. Seems the International Olympic Committee, following up on a hacker's diligent (okay, monomaniacal) work in unearthing evidence of uneven bar star He Kexin's true age, has called for an investigation into the teensy issue of just how old these triple-jointed monsters really are! Hang 'em high, you know? Send 'em back to flippin' boot camp with tears in their eyes and terror in their hearts at knowing what whip is about to come a' whippin'. Did they really think we wouldn't find out? Then they are even dumber than they look. [Epoch Times]
Trail Mix
Less than a day after John McCain admitted that he couldn't quite remember just how many houses he has (7, if you're scoring at home), the Obama campaign has put together an ad dinging him for it. That's got to help soothe the fears of Democrats worried about Obama's rapid-response team, no? Also, Jesus Christ, 7 homes? I'm still paying rent on a one-bedroom. I need to marry me some hooch heiress but quick.
WHICH hunk in a summer movie is a violent, closeted homosexual? The heartthrob snuck into his ex's apartment a few months ago and raped him so violently, the ex ended up in the hospital - and the actor paid him $500,000 to keep his mouth shut . . .
We've been wracking our brains trying to figure it out; my guess was Get Smart's Alan Arkin, but I was immediately shouted down by everyone else. Anyway, popular website ohnotheydidn't has suggested a different candidate: Will Smith.
READ MORE >>
As George W. Bush's favorite philosopher once said, "Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered." And some of those hairs are likely to lose pigment. The New York Daily Newstakes a look at Barack Obama's pate, upon which observers have begun to notice a definite graying pattern. Is it the nonstop stress of the presidential campaign? Or is it something more sinister? Could it actually be a deliberate attempt on the candidate's part to add a little gravitas through the time-tested method of the aging process? Only his barber knows for sure, and he's not saying anything. Oh, wait, actually he is:
READ MORE >> Dumb Money
While the firm is still up 14 percent this year, that number was as high as 40 in June. No word on whether the loses will force head honcho and "Little Iron Ranger"Philip Falcone to unload the $49 million Upper East Side townhouse he bought in March that used to belong to the original "Trim Reaper," Penthouse founder Bob Guccione.
Is everybody listening? Karl Rove's got the foolproof roadmaps to victory for both John McCain and Barack Obama in today's Wall Street Journal, and everyone involved should really be paying attention (from the looks of the latest polls, especially you, Obama). So what is it that the architect of the last two presidential victories suggests for the '08 candidates?
READ MORE >> Wonders of Nature
