Thursday, February 28, 2013


Music News

Dan Toler
© Facebook / Dan Toler
Former Allman Brothers guitarist Dan Toler dies at 65
By Billboard Staff,  Billboard
Billboard -- Former Allman Brothers Band guitarist Dan Toler has died following a two-year battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, otherwise known as ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease. He was 65.
Steve Fayette, a family friend, confirmed on Monday that Toler passed away in his sleep.
Toler, who is originally from Indiana, joined the Allman Brothers in 1979. In 1982, he joined The Gregg Allman band along with his brother, David "Frankie" Toler.
The Tolers played on the Allman Brothers' 1979 comeback album "Enlightened Rogues."

Saturday, February 23, 2013

Businessmen at a strip club (© Randy Faris/Corbis)

Strip club patrons more likely to use AOL email addresses

Finally, evidence to back up all those sweeping generalizations about AOL users we've been making for years. U.K.-based event booking agency Chilisauce analyzed data from 97,000 customers and determined that "groups booking with AOL email addresses are most likely to book a visit to a strip club," and that AOL email users "also planned slightly cheaper bachelor parties than other email domains." Huh. Is it just us, or do AOL accounts seem like holdovers from the distant, pre-2000 era when everyone's email address was something like ChillDude420 or RockNChick? Good thing AOL has found a new niche: email provider of choice for the lusty and frugal strip-club enthusiast.

Friday, February 22, 2013

Sarah Savage, Johnny Manziel’s girlfriend, puts out her own revealing bikini pic

(@jmanziel2)
Before Katherine Webb came onto the scene, Johnny Manziel’s wildly attractive girlfriend Sarah Savage took a brief picture with her beau and the Heisman Trophy, but has sparsely been seen since.
Until now.
(sarahsavage13)
Savage posted a racy bikini photo on her Instagram account Thursday evening and if you didn’t hate Manziel before, you definitely do now.
Savage, a model and a student at A&M, added this to the bottom of the photo “Can't wait to be back on the beach #15days,” which is probably a nod to spring break. And no, I don’t know where she’s going.
But, if she’s dressed like this, pictures will probably start surfacing pretty quickly.
The timing seems interesting, especially since photos of Webb, girlfriend of Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron, practicing her diving recently surfaced on the Internet.
Manziel, who is taking online classes this semester to stay out of the chaos of being on campus, has posted photos of himself at NBA games, casinos and Super Bowl parties, but very few of those photos have Savage in them. Initially, we thought she wanted to stay out of Manziel’s spotlight, but after seeing what being an SEC quarterback’s girlfriend can get you - SI swimsuit issue, Super Bowl access, a reality show - maybe she’s ready to throw her bikini in the ring.
Where’s Brent Musberger when you need him?

Thursday, February 21, 2013

A marijuana plant (© Patrice Magnien/20 Minutes/SIPA)

Pot in Colorado stays in Colorado, warns mellow-harshing task force

Now that anyone over 21 can legally use marijuana in Colorado, local lawmakers want to make certain that dope-loving tourists keep their Rocky Mountain highs within the Centennial State. Concerned that out-of-state vacationers might take leafy souvenirs back home to sell illegally, the task force — comprised of law enforcement authorities and marijuana activists — is recommending posting warning placards at airports and borders. Signs, dude, which people will totally read. The force is also looking at purchasing limits. So, while you can toke up freely in Colorado (awesome), you might only be able to buy 1/8 of an ounce per transaction (bummer).

Marijuana giveaways raise interesting questions

A new Colorado law OKs recreational use of pot, but selling it remains illegal. However, a loophole is prompting some questionable business practices.


Marijuana plants at a grow house in Denver on Nov. 8, 2012 (© Ed Andrieski/AP Photo)Here's one way to increase foot traffic at your out-of-the-way store: offer a free gift of marijuana with every purchase of $30 or more.

That's the approach one Colorado “head shop” is taking. The Denver Post reports the shop recently put an ad on Craigslist in an effort to attract more customers to its relatively remote site near the city's Sports Authority Field at Mile High (insert your joke here).

"The marijuana is not for sale," the store's owner told the Post. "You're actually purchasing smoking accessories, tobacco, T-shirts, fine art. As a gift for them patronizing our store, we're giving them 2 grams of marijuana for free.... It's just an incentive."

The offer, and others like it, are also coming under scrutiny from both sides of the cannabis issue in Colorado. And it could have an impact on the future of marijuana sales elsewhere in the U.S.

Voters in the state passed Amendment 64 last November, legalizing the recreational use of marijuana by adults. You can also legally "gift" a certain amount of marijuana to someone else. But it's still illegal in Colorado to buy or sell cannabis for recreational purposes -- at least until next year, when communities can decide to allow or ban local retail pot shops.

Medical marijuana is already legal and a big business in Colorado, and this acceptance, along with the apparent legal loophole in Amendment 64 has, for the moment, encouraged others in the cannabis industry to try their luck with "free" pot.

A Colorado Springs delivery service recently came under law enforcement scrutiny for offering door-to-door marijuana deliveries in exchange for "suggested donation[s] towards researching [marijuana] and improving our cultivation operation,” according to the city's Independent newspaper,

Some cannabis-oriented clubs also offer free marijuana -- after you pay an admission fee.

Supporters of Amendment 64 say there's some legal backing for the concept of trading marijuana without "remuneration" for a service, donation or item.

But marijuana is still illegal under federal law, and local law enforcement officials in Colorado are wise to the game as well.

"If I show up at your house with less than an ounce of marijuana, I'm 21, you're 21, and I say, 'Hey dude, it cost me 50 bucks in gas to get over here,' and you give me 50 bucks for my gas, there's nothing illegal," Lt. Mark Comte with Colorado Springs Police told the Independent.

"I mean, you and I both know what's going on with it,” he said, “but they know what the loopholes are right now."

Tuesday, February 19, 2013



Female in the pits: Christmas Abbott is set to enter where few women have gone before

Christmas Abbott is set to become a pit crew member in NASCAR. (Poetic Edge photography)
DAVIDSON, N.C. – The laws of physics explain why there aren't any female members of a NASCAR pit crew: The average woman of 5-4 weighs around 130 pounds, and the average racing tire weighs between 55 and 70 pounds. So physics explains a woman of average size would have to lift and move half her weight – twice – and bolt two tires in 12 seconds or less to succeed in a NASCAR pit.
Physics never met Christmas Abbott.
Physics never visited her house, saw the lug nuts on her kitchen counter, or stumbled across the air gun and wheel-and-axle set outside her bedroom. Physics never saw her garage, filled not with an automobile but with barbells and plates on top of plates. Physics never saw her lift a 70-pound barbell and leave it to rest on her shoulders like it's a winter shawl.
Danica Patrick is a badass, but the 5-3, 115-pound Christmas Abbott makes her look like a hand model. Abbott, 31, has a gun tattooed on her hip to remind her of time she spent in Iraq. She can squat 255 pounds "currently," which means it'll probably be 275 by the time you read this. And her newest pursuit – trying to make her way in one of the most male-dominated places in all of sports – is actually not as physically grueling as her day job. Auto racing might have a new sex symbol, but her life to this point has been built with true grit.
Last week, Abbott inked a deal to serve on a NASCAR pit crew in the Camping World Truck Series, where she'll change tires for driver Jennifer Jo Cobb. That means she'll be expected to whip around the No. 10 Ford with an air gun in hand, unbolt five lug nuts, rip a 60-pound tire off the car, bolt on a new one, then repeat it again on the other side all in about 12 seconds. She also will be in Clint Bowyer's pit for Sunday's Daytona 500, where she'll shadow the Michael Waltrip Racing crew in anticipation of a potential future "over the wall" assignment.
But the question isn't whether Christmas Abbott has what it takes to survive in the pits. She's been in more dangerous, more daunting spots. It's whether she can thrive there.
"I have to get dirty and [travel] overnight," Abbott said about diving into a year-long Truck Series schedule. "NASCAR fans are die-hard and they will call out your B.S. I want to go to the highest level, and I left three jobs to do [this] one."



The first sign came when she was a little girl in Virginia who wanted to play baseball. This wasn't because she wanted to beat the boys; she had small hands that made it hard to hold a softball. There was a problem, however, as there often is when girls try to play on boys teams: Christmas Abbott wasn't allowed.
Christmas Abbott practices in preparation for her NASCAR debut. (Poetic Edge photography)So her mom, Barbara Nichols, who named her second daughter Christmas because she was born in late December, got on the phone with the league organizer. Christmas remembers the look on her face when she heard her daughter would have to wear a cup. That was a bluff, and Mom was not falling for it. She yelled back into the phone: "She'll wear a steel bra, too!"
Christmas was 10.
She joined the team – after her mom threatened to bring local news trucks with her to the baseball diamond. Christmas didn't have to wear a cup. Or a steel bra. But the other teams weren't happy to see her. "They chucked the ball at me," she says now, with a laugh. "A lot."
Her toughness comes from her grandmother, who moved to the U.S. from Germany with her husband after the Korean War and didn't understand why people were shunning Germans like her. "She taught us to turn the other cheek," Christmas says. She grew up worshiping the women in her family, and she still does. "I come from an incredible heritage of women," Abbott says.
[Related: Danica Patrick captures Daytona 500 pole | Photos]
She might still be playing baseball if it wasn't for the accident. Christmas was 13 and a passenger in a car on the way home from a party. The car flipped. And kept flipping. Christmas only remembers waking up amid the shrapnel and asking for her sister, Kole. She would only hear paramedics and the jaws of life. Her sister had been thrown from the car and fell into a coma. She had to relearn how to walk. Christmas was fine on the outside, with only a case of whiplash, but her world fell apart.
The accident caused her to spiral. She stopped going to church and started smoking. Her studying lapsed and she spent more time at basketball games with boys. A lot of teenagers rebel, and Christmas definitely has a rebellious streak, but this was something darker. "I was angry," she says. "I was depressed. My world was drinking and smoking and not thinking for the day."
She got therapy. It helped her see value in her life. She took classes at Virginia Commonwealth. But she still didn't graduate. Kole recovered, eventually married and had kids. She even took a construction job as a laborer – typical Abbott toughness. But at age 21, Christmas was lost.
That's when her mom left for Baghdad as a general contractor. And Christmas decided to follow her, at 22. "I always had great respect for the military," she says.
For nearly three years, Abbott spent her days at a military laundry center in a war zone, sorting fatigues stained with blood, sweat and a lot of desert sand. Life became grueling and more than a little bit dangerous. "I remember when we were on a bus and there was an IED [improvised explosive device] in the road," she says. "I said, 'What's an IED and why can't we drive around it?' "
Christmas found a new respect for discipline because she had no other choice: She worked 12 hours a day, seven days a week. She was surrounded by men, wore "very concealing clothing and not a lot of makeup." She often slept in the laundry office. Then a soldier mentioned a workout he was doing that he thought she might be into. Christmas hadn't really been an athlete since her baseball days, but she went to take a look. And her life changed.
Skeptics in Iraq referred to it as "CircusFit" or "MonkeyFit" because it featured shirtless men swinging from bars and throwing around barbells, but CrossFit was on the verge of becoming a worldwide phenomenon. Back then, P90X was considered arduous (and let's face it, it is arduous), but CrossFit was on another level. It was designed to break the spirit and weed out the weak. "The minute you get arrogant," Abbott says, "it will smack you down."
CrossFit is a workout that combines pull-ups, squats, sit-ups, lifting heavy balls – and a host of other sweat-inducing exercises – all in a short amounts.
Abbott loved it. She was unafraid of all the heavy weight and soon she was throwing it around, too. She returned to the U.S. in 2007, opened her own CrossFit gym in Raleigh, and made it her career. She became one of only a few dozen "Head Trainers," which put her in a very elite group. She can clean and jerk 175 pounds, which is nearly 150 percent of her body weight.
She also got a cult following, as CrossFit fans became familiar with her six-pack abs, her cherubic smile, and the new gun tattoo on her hip. Abbott arrived in Iraq looking for an identity; she certainly found it upon her return.
And then a NASCAR exec found her.



Ted Bullard, then of Turner Motorsports, always wondered why there had never been a woman member of a NASCAR pit crew and decided to do his own talent search. It was actually inspired by CrossFit. He joined a gym and quickly noticed several of the women could lift more than he could. Soon after, he saw one of Abbott's CrossFit videos, loved her name and invited her to Charlotte for a tryout.
Lifting a tire wouldn't be a challenge. One of the standard CrossFit workouts involves flipping a tractor tire. Even the fuel can, which can weigh up to 90 pounds, wouldn't slow down Abbott. Nor would jacking up a car. Easy stuff for her. The hard part would be drilling the bolts on the tires once they're on the wheel. The pros do that six times in 1.3 seconds.
Turner set up a wheel-and-axle assembly station and Abbott gave it a try: 1.7 seconds. Not bad for a first-timer. Abbott was hooked, and Turner had its pit crew version of Danica. Or so they hope. "Christmas is going to transcend NASCAR," Bullard says.
There's nothing glamorous about this life. A low-level race pays only a few hundred dollars. One mistake, like missing a bolt, could result in dismissal. Doing the job perfectly, every time, is required. The driver gets most of the credit and tons more money. And the travel is insane. Abbott, who has a boyfriend, will not get to see loved ones for the better part of the entire year. Socializing won't happen during races, and it probably won't happen during nights out either.
Abbott says she rarely drinks anymore, and would spend a night out with the guys sipping a "pretend and tonic." She's been in testosterone-fueled environments for years now, both in Iraq and at her gym in Raleigh, but this is different. The other men in the crew will be depending on her to not screw up. If you drop a barbell in the gym, you pick it up and nobody cares. If you drop an air gun in the pit, you could cost your team the race.
"We have a lot of great athletes," says Gary Smith, pit coach for Front Row Motorsports, "but there are some who mentally just can't do it."
To Abbott, though, that's the appeal. "It's that much of a challenge," she says. "In pit crewing, even with the fatigue, you have to have the perfect precision to get the task done. You remember every tenth of every second. It's that consistency of performance."
[Related: Bowyer ready to go racing … and lion hunting]
Even more than CrossFit, being on a pit crew requires a mental control over physical actions. That's the hook. Abbott is everywhere on YouTube, wearing not much in her workouts, but she's not out to be a celebrity. In fact, the attention makes her a little uncomfortable. "There's a lot of spotlight," she says. "I prefer to be the quiet underdog."
She's perfectly fine proving herself at lower rungs along the way. She's expected to be on Cobb's crew for the entire Camping World Truck season and hopes to add a few assignments at the elite Cup Series level.
It took her years to excel at CrossFit and she knows it may take that long to climb the NASCAR ranks. Asked how she would feel if another woman became the first full-timer on a NASCAR pit crew, she says it would be "bad ass."
"I absolutely don't want to be put in a position because of this opportunity," she says. In other words, she doesn't want to be given a shot because she's a she. She wants to earn it.
A noble thought, yet one that will likely drown in criticism. The pretty face with the sculpted arms is not likely to be the "quiet underdog" once people see her on TV. Bullard wants to make Abbott the first pit star, and so will TV producers. That will bring untold pressure.
Bullard says Abbott's already in talks with Hollywood about a possible reality show. It won't be about her life in the pits; it'll be about her life. "There's no blueprint for this," Bullard says.
Abbott loves what she does because of the grind – the tiny, incremental improvements she makes over months and years. She got that from the women in her family, and her greatest rewards have come from the agonizing, glacial chisel of sustained effort.
This, however, is different. "Christmas needs time," Bullard says, but there is no time. That's the one thing the pits don't allow for.
It's taken years for Christmas Abbott to excel. She's proud of that.
But now she's going to have to hurry. 

Saturday, February 16, 2013



Swedish photographer wins World Press Photo award

AMSTERDAM (AP) — Swedish photographer Paul Hansen won the 2012 World Press Photo award Friday for newspaper Dagens Nyheter with a picture of two Palestinian children killed in an Israeli missile strike being carried to their funeral.
The picture shows a group of men marching the dead bodies through a narrow street in Gaza City. The victims, a brother and sister, are wrapped in white cloth with only their faces showing.
"The strength of the pictures lies in the way it contrasts the anger and sorrow of the adults with the innocence of the children," said jury member Mayu Mohanna of Peru. "It's a picture I will not forget."
World Press Photo, one of photojournalism's most prestigious contests, issued awards in nine categories to 54 photographers of 32 nationalities.
Hansen's Nov. 20 shot won top prize in both the spot news single photograph category and the overall competition. It portrays 2-year-old Suhaib Hijazi and her 3-year-old brother Muhammad, who were killed when their house was destroyed by the Israeli attack. They are being carried by grieving uncles, as their father Fouad was also killed, and his body can be seen in the background of the picture.
The children's mother, whose name was not provided, was in intensive care.
"This prize is the highest honor you can get in the profession," Hansen told The Associated Press. "I'm very happy, but also very sad. The family lost two children and the mother is unconscious in a hospital."
"These situations are so visually complex," he added. "It's difficult to convey the emotions, to translate what is happening. The light is harsh and there are a lot of people.
"But in the alley the light bounced off the walls, so I thought this is a place where you can see that it's a procession. ... You get the depth in the image, and the bouncing light."
Violence in the Middle East, and its effect upon civilians, was the dominant theme in the hard news categories.
The Associated Press won eight awards in all, including top prizes for a spot news series for Bernat Armangue of Spain for photos he took in Gaza during November; and for Rodrigo Abd of Argentina for general news single photograph, with a picture of a woman with a bloodstained face weeping in Idib, Syria, on March 10.
She was identified as Aida, and her photo of silent grief is in some ways a reverse image of Hansen's winning shot. She received severe injuries when her house was shelled by the Syrian Army, killing her husband and two children.
In other categories, Wei Seng Chen of Malaysia won in the sports singles category with a shot of what might be considered a local "extreme sport": a man clutching the tails of two bulls as they pull him through a watery rice field in Batu Sangkar, Indonesia.
The competition also includes portrait series, scenes from everyday life, and nature photography, among others.
The contest drew entries from professional press photographers, photojournalists and documentary photographers across the world. In all, 103,481 images were submitted by 5,666 photographers from 124 countries.
The photos were submitted anonymously to a panel of 19 jury members, chaired by AP Director of Photography Santiago Lyon, and judged in multiple rounds.
The winners were all "stellar examples of first-rate photojournalism," Lyon said.
Other judges came from Germany, Iraq, Peru, France, Sweden, China, Britain, Spain, Azerbaijan, South Africa, The Netherlands, Switzerland and the U.S.
Hansen will receive a €10,000 prize at ceremonies and the opening of the year's exhibition April 25-27 in Amsterdam.

Bank industry woes sink strip clubs

Layoffs and pay cuts at financial institutions bring tough times for dancers in London, and strippers in the US may also see slower business soon.


Credit: ZUMA Wire Service/AlamyDuring peaks and valleys in the economic cycle, well-paid banker bros are always comfortable investing in one particular commodity: silicone.

Until they lose their own jobs, that is, then strip-club pocket money suddenly has to go somewhere other than the nearest garter. This has been the problem of late for free-spending London bankers who suddenly find themselves cash-strapped after a spate of layoffs and cutbacks. Their Lower Manhattan colleagues who frequent establishments like New York Dolls and Scores may be stripped of their lap-dance allowance disposable singles soon enough.

On Tuesday, Britain's Barclays (BCS -0.10%) bank announced that it would cut 3,700 jobs globally in 2013 as part of a strategic overhaul, with 420 jobs in its U.K. technology and infrastructure division to go as well as 275 jobs in New York at the old Lehman Brothers building. Meanwhile, British bank RBS (RBS -1.93%) is cutting a further 3,500 jobs in the U.K. and elsewhere while Dutch banking and insurance group ING is cutting 7,500 jobs.

Add that to the 13,500 jobs Swiss bank UBS (UBS -2.08%) has cut since the financial crisis began in 2007 and roughly 160,000 jobs have been lost from the banking sector worldwide, according to Reuters. Those fortunate enough to keep their jobs have seen banks cut back pay and bonuses, institute claw-back policies for the bonuses they do pay out and paying those bonuses in shares and deferred payments rather than cash.

With instant gratification becoming a distant memory for most bankers thanks to risky trading and the Libor interest rate fixing scandal, London's strip clubs have become a bellwether for conspicuous consumption. News from the front of the stage is already grim.

"They tell me inside on the floor that business is going down,the customers are spending less money, there's a smaller amount of people coming in now," a source at a central London strip club told CNBC.

When the strip clubs are in trouble, bad times for everyone else aren't far behind. Restaurants like 1 Lombard Street, across from the Bank of England, offers three-course meals for $100 per person but has seen dinner business drop in the last year as bankers trade the a la carte menu for the specials list. The members-only Brompton Club in London's tony South Kensington neighborhood has seen its more affluent clientele leave for Geneva and elsewhere and its party bookings dwindle. London's booming property investment market has watched bankers slip from 50% of the buyer base five years about to just 30% today.

Will any of this affect bankers and business in America? It's still a bit early to tell, but converting that $20 in your wallet to singles and going to a strip club in the nearest financial district is certainly one way to find out.

Maker's Mark waters down bourbon to save supply

Increasing global demand for Kentucky's spirit of choice is leading to tough decisions for distillers.


You call that a Manhattan? With Maker's Mark dropping its alcohol by volume from 45% to 42%, that's a Hartford or Newark at best.

The folks at Quartz intercepted an email sent to Maker's Mark customers from parent company Beam (BEAM -0.21%) on Saturday saying that the bourbon's alcohol content would be reduced "by just 3%" to offset shortages and meet rising global demand. However, the company later clarified that it would be reducing alcohol content by three percentage points and actually dropping its potency 6.7% from 90 proof to 84 proof.
The Samuels family that produces Maker's Mark -- the bourbon of choice for a bitters-laced Manhattan cocktail -- isn't taking the reduction lightly. Rob Samuels and Bill Samuels Jr. put it plainly to Maker's Mark fans in their email that "we've made sure we didn't screw up your whiskey," but noted that increasing worldwide demand for their product means this is a change everyone will have to live with.

According to the Distilled Spirits Council liquor trade association, whiskey made up a whopping 70% of the $1.5 billion in liquor the group estimates the U.S. exported in 2012. That's triple the nation's beer exports and $250 million more than its overseas wine shipments. File photo of bourbon bottles at Maker's Mark Bourbon Distillery, on 16 Oct. 16, 2006 (Walter Bibikow/Corbis)

Meanwhile, the Kentucky Distillers' Association notes that bourbon accounts for 35% of all spirits produced in the U.S. Bourbon fuels $2.5 billion in sales in the U.S. and in the 126 countries where it's exported and makes up the majority of U.S. whiskey exports.

While the Samuels family isn't comfortable with watering down its prized product, Rob Samuels told Louisville, Ky., radio station WFPL on Sunday that complaints about the new alcohol content "pale in comparison to the feedback that we've received with the shelves being empty" in Florida, California and elsewhere.

It's also not as if they're the first to do so. Back in 2004, Brown-Forman (BF.A +1.90%) lowered the strength of its flagship Old No. 7 black label Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey from 43% alcohol by volume to 40%. That's a full 10 percentage points lower than what it was in 1987, when Jack Daniel's first had its potency reduced from 90 proof to 86 proof.

The purists muttered and cursed to USA Today then just as they now disparage Beam's Maker's Mark decision as “cheap business practice” in the New York Post. However, the trend worldwide is toward less alcohol content. The Times of India notes efforts in the United Kingdom to get brewers and distillers including Heineken and Diageo (DEO +0.45%) to produce more low-alcohol beers and spirits. Besides, doesn't less alcohol give fans more time to enjoy the bourbon they love?

Sunday, February 10, 2013

File photo of a couple getting busy (© Getty Images)

Don't even think about having sex in Virginia — it might be illegal

Virginia is one of many states to have old sex laws still on the books. But Virginia’s provisions, meant to protect the state residents' "morals and decency," are especially entertaining for their ridiculousness. The state is working to repeal its law against living in sin, but that's not the only issue. For instance, you better not let anybody — including yourself — have sex in your car, per Section 18.2-349. And don't forget, oral sex is a felony, even among married couples. And don't even think about going outside your marriage if you have the sinful desire for a little aforementioned oral pleasure from time to time: Adultery is a class-four misdemeanor, so you won't get off with just wearing a scarlet "A" around town.
Interior shot of the Colesseum, Ausberg (via http://www.colosseum-augsburg.de)

Employment agency assigned teen a job in a brothel

An unnamed woman recently received a letter from an employment office in Augsburg, Germany (where prostitution is legal, FYI). The 19-year-old had been looking for a job since November. So she was relieved — until she opened it and was informed that she was to report for her new gig as a waitress at a bar inside a brothel (see photo above) named the Colosseum. This letter said the recipient was to have an "attractive appearance" and available to work nights and weekends. A shocked Christine, of course, turned the job down and received an apology from the agency. 

Friday, February 8, 2013


Modigliani portrait sells for $42M in London

LONDON (AP) — The high-end art market is weathering Europe's economic storm, with London auctions this week netting more than 280 million pounds ($440 million) as international bidders snapped up high-profile works.
Sales of Impressionist, modern and surrealist art at rival auctioneers Christie's and Sotheby's saw several pre-sale estimates shattered.
Judd Tully, editor-at-large of Art and Auction magazine, said Thursday that the two big auction houses had had "exceptionally strong sales."
"The art market seems to confound all other financial indicators," he said. "There is a lot of money sloshing around, and it's very global."
Christie's said "new and established buyers from 19 countries" snapped up works at a Wednesday sale that saw a portrait by Amedeo Modigliani sold to an anonymous telephone bidder for 26.9 million pounds ($42.1 million), above its top estimate.
Modigliani's 1919 portrait of his lover Jeanne Hebuterne was the highlight of Christie's Impressionist and modern auctions, which raised a total of 136 million pounds ($214 million).
"Apres le dejeuner" by 19th-century Impressionist Berthe Morisot sold for 6.9 million pounds ($10.9 million), almost three times its high estimate and a record price for a female artist at auction.
A day earlier, Pablo Picasso's 1932 work "Woman Sitting Near a Window" — a portrait of the artist's "golden muse," Marie-Therese Walter — fetched 28.6 million pounds ($45 million) at Sotheby's.
In total, Sotheby's Impressionist and modern sales raised 145 million pounds ($228 million).
Both auction houses held separate surrealist sales that brought strong prices for artists including Rene Magritte and Joan Miro.
At Sotheby's, "The Farmer and his Wife," a vivid Miro canvas from 1936 once owned by filmmaker Billy Wilder, sold for just under 5.9 million pounds ($9.3 million).
Salvador Dali's 1943 "Portrait of Mrs. Harrison Williams" — an image of a famous New York socialite who later became Countess Mona Bismarck — sold for just under 2.3 million pounds ($3.6 million).
Works by Egon Schiele and Claude Monet also commanded high prices at the week's auctions, although some high-profile lots failed to meet their reserve prices.
Three works by Schiele raised a higher-than-expected total of 14 million pounds ($22 million) at Sotheby's, with one — "Lovers (Self-portrait With Wally)" — netting just under 7.9 million pounds ($12.4 million), an auction record for a work on paper by the early 20th century Viennese artist.
"There has been a lot of talk about the Impressionist and modern market dying out because of a lack of a material," Tully said. "But when really good property shows up there seems to be a lot of appetite for these works."
____

Wednesday, February 6, 2013


Exotic Dancers Can Collect Unemployment, Kansas Supreme Court Says

gty stripclub mi 130205 wblog Exotic Dancers Can Collect Unemployment, Kansas Supreme Court Says
(Image credit: Getty Images)
The Kansas Supreme Court ruled that exotic dancers at a strip club have the right to collect unemployment insurance as employees and not independent contractors.
In 2005, a dancer at Club Orleans in Topeka filed an unemployment claim. The dancers earn money through tips, while the club maintains that it is offering “rental space” for them to perform.
By ruling that the workers are employees because they had to follow a number of house rules, the state Supreme Court decided that the club’s owners must contribute to the state unemployment-insurance fund, as first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
The Kansas Department of Labor argued that the minimum rates for particular dances and rules binding interactions with customers could be interpreted as rules for employees.
The Department of Labor would not release the name of the worker who filed for unemployment.
Michael Merriam, an attorney for Milano’s, a company that owned Club Orleans since 2002, told ABC News that the ruling “was incorrectly decided.”
“The court relied almost entirely on the fact that we had some house rules which were requested by the dancers. They were designed to keep everything legal,” Merriam said. “And the court relied on that fact alone to say we had control over them and that made them employees.”
He said his client does not plan to appeal the decision.
“This is the Kansas Supreme Court. This is where it ends,” he said.
A spokeswoman for the Kansas Department of Labor said this ruling applies to the workers at issue in this case.
“All decisions concerning unemployment are based on the applicable law and the specific facts of each case,” she said.

Sunday, February 3, 2013



Canned beer taste test

Coors Light(Photo courtesy of Coors Light)
Epicurious tried ten brews; three merit a spot in your fridge.
Apparently, Noah had some brew stashed aboard the Ark. In ancient Babylon, clay tablets were used to record recipes for this thirst-quenching beverage. The pharaohs of Egypt were buried with vessels of beer, to sustain them on the journey to the afterlife. Refreshing, affordable, and a perfect partner with all manner of foods, this combination of yeast, malt, and other ingredients has long been humankind's drink of choice.
As the beer movement has continued to, well, ferment, with increasingly esoteric methods and ingredients, we at Epicurious have tried to cover the scene from all angles, but the one thing we had yet to do is taste-test classic, everyday canned beers. These are the brands you find at your local supermarket, the cans you keep stocked in the cooler, and the go-to brews for a casual gathering like a Super Bowl party, a tailgate, or a day at the beach.
In addition to wide availability, canned beer offers affordability ($6.49 compared with $8.59 for a six-pack of higher-end brew) and convenience (no bottle opener required!). Plus, cans (vs. glass) are ideal for even the rowdiest crowds. Yet, do these inexpensive canned beers taste nearly as good as the more elite brands? With that question in mind, 15 judges tasted ten popular, nationally available canned beers, and the answer was…maybe. While none of these brews won the full four forks, the three finalists would be fine to serve at any large party.

(See more: Best frozen foods for the Super Bowl)


TOP PICK: Best Canned Beer Overall
Coors Light
($5.19 per six-pack)
Pros: There was no question that this one was the winner. Tasters described it as mildly foamy, aromatic, full of life, golden, smooth, and light, but with a bite. One judge said, "It has character, especially for a light beer."
Cons: Slightly grainy to some.
Editors' rating: 3 forks.


Tecate Beer(Photo courtesy of Tecate)FIRST RUNNER-UP : Standard Beer
Tecate
($6.49 per six-pack)
Pros: One judge crowned this his favorite because of its caramel color, lusciousness, and bold beer flavor. Another taster labeled it "sweet and smooth— like a good brew should be."
Cons: Some wished for more carbonation.

Editors' rating: 2.5 forks.









Amstel Light(Photo courtesy of Amstel Light)
FIRST RUNNER-UP: Light Beer
Amstel Light
($7.39 per six-pack)
Pros: Panelists praised this beer for one simple reason: It doesn't taste like light beer. They hailed it as full-bodied and flavorful. One judge said it best: "This tastes like one of the more expensive beers I'd be able to afford once in a while." Another judge liked its "spice."
Cons: A bit too malty for some tasters' palates.
Editors' rating: 2.5 forks.








Pabst Blue Ribbon(Photo courtesy Pabst Blue Ribbon)The Other Contenders: The Bottom Three Judges found that Budweiser had a tinny flavor, and its pale golden color didn't help matters. Miller tasted diluted. Pabst Blue Ribbon was described as having a bit of a bite yet was watery and somewhat bitter.

















Heineken(Photo courtesy of Heineken) Additional Taste Test Details
All ten varieties we evaluated are available nationwide in supermarkets or online. Listed from highest to lowest score achieved, they are: Coors Light, Amstel Light, Bud Light, Natural Light, Tecate, Heineken, Miller Lite, Pabst Blue Ribbon, Miller, Budweiser.
Methodology: In a blind taste test, judges compared the flavor, consistency, and appearance of ten types of canned beer (five were light beers; five, standard brews). All were tasted with salted pretzels. We ranked the beers according to the Epicurious four-fork rating system (four being best).
Prices and availability subject to change.

Saturday, February 2, 2013



Deion Sanders’ daughter joins the Bikini Basketball League despite her dad being ‘kind of upset’

(@deiondrasanders)Deion Sanders was a two-sport athlete.
Now his daughter is making a name for herself by playing a sports league named after a two-piece bathing suit.
Deiondra Sanders, daughter of the Hall of Fame football player, has agreed to play in the upstart Bikini Basketball League this season. Featuring several former professional basketball players including some who have played in the WNBA and overseas, the league is a bit of a misnomer as the players wear shorts and sports bras and not actual bathing suits.
Still, it amounts to a little more material than Deion’s famous bandanna he’d wear on his head on game day. And even though Deiondra's father was known for his flamboyant personality including gold chains and exuberant touchdown dances, his daughter's signing with the league didn’t originally sit well with dear old dad.
“My dad was kind of upset, but that’s like any parent who just sees bikini league,” Deiondra told Jeff Sammut of 590 The Fan in Toronto. “He thought I was gonna be out there in a bikini. He [saw] a picture of our uniform and stuff like that, so I think once he saw that we’re actually covered up a little bit, he wasn’t as concerned.”
Deiondra hopes that playing in the league will put her in prime-time position for her career and for being a “positive voice.” She will play for the Atlanta Peaches.
Sanders’ daughter also took a shot at the Lingerie Football League during the interview. As its name suggests, the LFL actually features women playing football in lingerie. She sees differences between the Bikini Basketball League and the Lingerie Football League beyond the wardrobe choices.
“I just think that it’s a lot different because we actually do have players, real basketball players, that actually have played in the WNBA before,” Sanders said. “So I think that this will make a difference because people are really gonna see real-life hoopers. They just look good while doing it.”
Somewhere, Nikki Johnson isn't too happy at the insinuation that she isn’t a “real” football player. After all, this hit was harder than anything Deiondra's dad ever laid on the field.
This isn't the first time that Deiondra has been in the headlines. She went on a well-publicized Twitter rant against her stepmother in 2011 and a very public breakup with Quincy Miller of the Denver Nuggets in 2012.