Category Archives: entertainment news

entertainment news, local news

Let’s think big about the MPEV

Amarillo MPEV

Let us take a moment — or maybe two — to consider some possibilities for a venue that Amarillo officials want built in the city’s downtown district.

It’s called a multipurpose event venue, but “MPEV” has become its signature.

The MPEV is on the Nov. 3 ballot. The ballot language gives voters a narrow choice: whether to allow it to proceed with a “ballpark” included in it design. We will be asked to vote “yes” or “no.”

Critics of the MPEV, estimated to cost about $32 million, say the ballpark element restricts its use. I believe that’s nonsense.

So, we could move the baseball activity that’s been occurring at the Potter County Memorial rat hole, er. stadium for the past few years into a gleaming new downtown stadium.

That’s it? That’s all we can see for this venue? Hardly.

The weather, contrary to many other naysayers, shouldn’t detract from other activities. Why, for example, can’t we have outdoor concerts? Don’t other communities welcome acts to perform outdoors? Aren’t there sufficient numbers of entertainers who would like to play outdoors in downtown Amarillo on a cool autumn evening?

And let’s get real here. We all have appreciated the pleasant temperatures we see even during the summer when the sun goes down along the High Plains. Our altitude — nearly 3,700 feet above sea level — helps make those evenings a reality.

OK, so the winters get chilly around here. And yes, spring can be a bit unpredictable — weather-wise.

The planners who’ve proposed this project haven’t re-invented the wheel. Other communities have enjoyed success with downtown ballparks that have been used for various other activities when they aren’t hawking hot dogs, peanuts and cold beer at ballgames.

What they’re pitching, though, is a new concept for this city. The MPEV will work if it’s given the chance — and if we start thinking expansively about the many uses available to it.

 

entertainment news

Young man pays the price for his fame

duggar

Josh Duggar has admitted to cheating on his wife.

Why is that a big deal?

The young man is part of a very large and very over-exposed family. They were the center of a reality TV show, “19 Kids and Counting.” They espoused their deep Christian faith and thrust that belief into the homes of millions of TV viewers regularly.

They presented themselves as the perfect family. What’s more, they became active politically off the screen. Duggar, particularly, became a voice for “traditional family values” while working for the Family Research Council.

Then Josh was revealed to have touched young girls inappropriately while he was a teenager. Some of his victims were his own sisters.

TLC, the network that broadcast the TV show featuring the Duggar clan, ended the series. Duggar no longer works for the Family Research Council.

Now we hear that Josh Duggar has cheated on his wife using a website — AshleyMadison.com — that was created for those who want to break their sacred marital vow.

It’s all tawdry and quite sickening.

I am not going to condemn Josh Duggar today. He’s begging for forgiveness. His statement of contrition sound quite sincere. It included this: “I have been the biggest hypocrite ever. While espousing faith and family values, I have secretly over the last several years been viewing pornography on theIinternet and this became a secret addiction and I became unfaithful to my wife.”

I guess one of the tragedies of this bizarre story, though, is watching a young man being revealed as being someone quite different from the “reality” he presented on a TV show.

And I suppose it’s fair to ask: How much “reality” on the plethora of these shows is as fake as what’s been revealed about Josh Duggar?

 

entertainment news, local news

How to sell the event venue …

Amarillo downtown

My friend and I had a brief, but animated, discussion early this afternoon about the upcoming vote on Amarillo’s proposed multipurpose event venue.

We are on the same page. We both support what the city has proposed. We both think it will work wonders for the city’s economic well-being.

Three of the five members of our City Council disagree with us. They seem to want it to fail. They decided this week to put the issue to a citywide vote.

But as we visited today at her place of employment, I found myself getting worked up.

My fear is this: The voters are going to say “no” to the MPEV because they don’t understand what it can do; they are “afraid,” I told my friend, of trying something new, of thinking beyond their comfort zone, of looking at the immense possibilities that lie ahead.

My hope is this: Those who support the MPEV and believe in the city’s project — as I do — will organize a grassroots effort designed to lay out in detail how to market a sports and entertainment venue that can become the draw its supporters claim it will become.

The MPEV can be far more than a “ballpark.” Yes, we have this independent minor-league baseball team — now called the Thunderheads — playing in a rat hole of a stadium at the Tri-State Fairgrounds. MPEV critics keep reminding us that the Thunderheads cannot fill that place up, even with the generous ticket giveaways they offer.

Gosh, I wonder why. Oh yeah. The place stinks. It’s been patched up with the construction equivalent of Band-Aids. It really and truly needs to be torn down. With a gleaming new baseball venue in the heart of downtown Amarillo, I hope the razing of the dump formerly known as the “Dilla Villa” can — and will — reduce it to so much trash.

As for the MPEV, there needs to be some seriously creative marketing brought into play.

Can we not find some creativity in this community that is capable of putting together a 21st-century promotional campaign designed to attract events to a venue that its supporters hope will help reshape the downtown district?

I remain squarely committed to this venue. I’m not a marketing guy. I merely believe in thinking big. It’s time we thought bigger than we have in this city.

What’s more, let’s not be coy about what a defeat of the MPEV will mean to the rest of the downtown revival project. The downtown convention hotel won’t be built and without the hotel, there goes the need for the proposed parking garage.

Sure, Xcel Energy has begun work on its new office tower. The rest of it, the work that’s supposed to attract more people in search of something to do after hours? It’ll be gone.

And do we really and truly want to start over after we’ve gone so far already?

entertainment news

The Hulkster says he’s sorry … now

Hulk

Et, tu … Hulk Hogan?

The list of big-mouth celebrities who say things they shouldn’t say has grown by one very intriguing personality.

Terry Bollea, aka Hulk Hogan, said some things years ago that have just come out. The pro wrestling association that hired Hogan, World Wrestling Entertainment, has essentially terminated him. It’s taken the Hulkster’s image off its website.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2015/07/24/wwe-erases-hulk-hogan-mentions-from-web-site/

Hogan says he’s sorry.

Granted, it wasn’t one of those “If I’ve offended anyone … ” apologized straight out. He said he’s sorry. No qualifiers. No mealy-mouthiness about it.

I’m glad about that. Then said this, in a statement to People magazine: “This is not who I am. I believe very strongly that every person in the world is important and should not be treated differently based on race, gender, orientation, religious beliefs or otherwise. I am disappointed with myself that I used language that is offensive and inconsistent with my own beliefs.”

This is not who I am?

You hear that occasionally from celebrities who say offensive things. They disavow the comments, as if someone put them into a trance and put some sort of post-hypnotic spell on them to make them say things they otherwise wouldn’t say.

I fear that whatever Bollea-Hogan said — and I haven’t seen precisely what it was — that he meant it at the time.

Did he change his view of individuals, or groups of individuals?

I have no idea.

But when you make patently offensive statements and you sully the reputation of your employer — which might sound strange when referring to an organization that promotes fake “wrestling” and showcases women as sex objects — well, then you pay the price.

As an old friend and colleague once told me: You cannot unhonk the horn.

entertainment news

So long, ’19 Kids and Counting’

Well, that was a big surprise … not!

The Learning Channel has canceled “19 Kids and Counting” in the wake of an admission by one of the “19 kids” that he molested young girls when he was a teenager; some of the girls were his own sisters.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/news/tlc-cancels-19-kids-and-counting/ar-AAd30kF

Josh Duggar’s been missing from family publicity photos. He’s become a sort of persona non grata while TLC decided what to do with the popular reality-TV series.

This cancellation had to occur. The Duggar family portrays itself as a group of deeply religious individuals. No, they aren’t “perfect,” as one or two of the daughters have sought to remind us. Then again, Mom and Dad Duggar have become politically active, supporting candidates who purport to stand for strict morality and, um, “family values.”

Well, young Josh messed up. He tarnished his very public family’s name and reputation.

TLC has decided it cannot continue the charade. The Duggars can now continue their rehabilitation in private, away from the TV cameras’ glare.

Good. So long, Duggars.

entertainment news

This is in ‘defense’ of a philanderer?

Holy bleeping mackerel! I need to catch my breath over this one.

Bill Cosby has been accused by several women of drugging them and then assaulting them sexually. The comedic icon and symbol of upstanding moral behavior hasn’t denied doing these things, at least not publicly.

Now we hear from his wife of many years, Camille, who has said that the women “consented” to the drugs and to having sex with her husband.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/news/bill-cosby-accusers-blast-his-wife-camille-over-claims-women-%e2%80%98consented%e2%80%99-to-drugs-sex/ar-AAcWgk6

Someone has to help me understand this one.

This is Mrs. Cosby’s defense of her husband? Am I to understand, based on what she’s said, that Camille Cosby believes her husband had sex with other women but that it’s somehow OK because they gave their consent?

It’s like the spouse of a murderer saying, “It’s OK that my husband/wife killed that person. He just needed killin’.”

According to the New York Post, Mrs. Cosby is “well aware of his cheating, but she doesn’t believe that her husband is a rapist.”

What in the name of all that is holy am I missing here?

 

entertainment news

Trolls are lurking; they’re on the hunt

facebook-illustration

It’s time for another admission.

I’ve developed something of an addiction to Facebook. I’m on it quite often, looking for things my actual friends and Facebook “friends” are doing and saying.

But a curious thing keeps happening and I want to share it with you here.

These “friend requests” keep showing up on my news feed. Individuals want to become “friends” on Facebook. I’m a bit reluctant to accept many of them. I look first to see who their current “friends” might be. If some of them already are included in my “friends” roster, I might accept the request. But not always.

These days I’m getting even more selective.

You see, I’ve accepted “friend” requests from individuals and they’ve turned out to be, well, pesky.

They pester me with responses to things I post on the social medium.

I use Facebook to distribute my blog, on which I write frequently. This post is an example, yes?

That platform goes out to my friends and I encourage them to distribute my posts along their network of friends. Same thing goes for Twitter, which also receives my blog.

However, when I get these “friend requests,” I have to weigh whether the person requesting the Facebook relationship is in it for the right reason — or wants to become known as a “troll.”

A couple of those so-called “trolls” have joined my Facebook “friends” roster.

Why do they annoy me? They take liberties responding to my blog. These are people I do not know. Yet they talk to me as if we’re longtime acquaintances.

I am at least acquainted with the vast majority of those with whom I have a Facebook relationship. And I know many of those individuals fairly well.

What’s more, the tiny handful of my very best friends in the world also are included in this group. They know who they are. Indeed, I’ve long held the view that one can usually count on the fingers of one hand his true friends.

These trolls, though, drive me a little nuts.

I actually unfriended one of those guys about a year ago because of the filthy language he was posting on my timeline. I didn’t want to subject other actual friends to the filth that was coming from this guy — who sought to join my roster of Facebook “friends.” I accepted his request, and then regretted it.

I’m not inclined to take that drastic route with the others who annoy me.

At least not yet.

entertainment news

Down with the rebel flag … in most places

I totally understand the outcry and backlash against the Confederate battle flag in the wake of a recent massacre.

The flag has come to represent hatred, bigotry, bondage … all things of which the nation shouldn’t be proud. It has become the symbol of arguably the nation’s pre-eminent hate group, the Ku Klux Klan.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/motorsports/nascar-fans-defend-display-confederate-flags-at-daytona/ar-AAcARfX

This weekend it became an attraction at a NASCAR race at Daytona Speedway, the Taj Mahal of the sport.

Racing fans flew the flag proudly, proclaiming it represents — to them, at least — Southern “heritage.”

Whatever. To many of us, it represents a lot of other things that have nothing to do with heritage.

But I’m wondering about why a certain television network, TV Land, has decided to discontinue showing “Dukes of Hazzard” reruns on its affiliate stations because it depicts a car driven by two redneck cousins that has a battle flag image painted on its roof.

If ever a show poked good-natured fun at some aspects of Southern culture, that TV show was at the top of the heap. Every one of the characters on that show was a caricature of sorts. The Duke boys, Uncle Jesse, Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane, all of ’em were intended to make fun.

I never recall anything remotely racist being depicted on that show.

Yes, the flag need not fly on the statehouse grounds in the very state where a racist murderer gunned down nine people with whom he was studying the Bible in Charleston, S.C. It need not be depicted on motor vehicle license plates, or should it fly on public property anywhere in this country.

But to target a light-hearted TV show?

I don’t get that one. Someone will have to explain that to me.

entertainment news

Ringo to turn 75! Gulp, some of us are old!

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Ringo Starr

I don’t feel all that old old, but I guess I am.

So, then, must this guy be old. Ringo Starr turns 75 next Tuesday. You remember him, yes? He used to play drums with The Beatles — and surely you’ve heard of them.

How old do I feel today? Quite old, actually.

Consider this little tidbit.

I’m at work this afternoon. I spot a couple — Jack and Pat. They’re friends of mine. They’re shopping for a vehicle. After a lengthy session with the sales rep who sold them the vehicle, I walked up to Pat and told her, “Hey did you know that Tuesday, Ringo Starr turns 75 years of age?” She laughed and said, “We’re getting old.”

I turned to the sales rep. “Did you know that?” I asked. The rep — get ready for this — didn’t know who Ringo Starr is.

Pat said, politely, “He used to be a drummer. He played with The Beatles.”

I do not know the age of the sales representative in question. I’m guessing about 30. Hmm. Old enough perhaps to have heard from Mom, Dad — or perhaps Grandma and Grandpa about the “good old days” when bands such as The Beatles were making music that transcends generations.

That’s OK. I’ll give my colleague a pass. But as I’ve noted many times, he and his band mates — John, George and Paul — helped raise me.

If only it didn’t make me feel so old.

entertainment news

It wasn’t a ‘Shawshank’ escape

I keep reading references to that New York prison escape that compare it to the film “Shawshank Redemption.”

And then I keep wondering: Where does that comparison come from?

http://news.yahoo.com/joyce-mitchell-arrested-dannemora-york-prison-escape-case-220005633–abc-news-topstories.html

Joyce Mitchell has been arrested and charged with helping murderers David Sweat and Richard Matt escape from the maximum-security prison in upstate New York. She is accused of providing hacksaw blades to the men, who then sawed through steel sewer pipes and wormed their way outside the walls.

Does that sound like “Shawshank” to you? It doesn’t to me.

In the film, Tim Robbins’s character, Andy Dufresne, is imprisoned wrongly for murder of his wife and the man with whom she was cheating.

He’s sent to prison in Maine and then for the next 19 years he chips his way out of his cell, using homemade carving tools.

Andy didn’t have any help. No one supplied blades. No one distracted prison guards.

Sweat and Matt will be caught. Searchers are narrowing the area where they’re looking, although I’m guessing the two men won’t give up without a fight.

Andy ended up on a beach in Mexico, refurbishing an old boat and lived happily ever after.