Rascalnikov

Watch the first video from the United Nations of Sound, the new band led by Richard Ashcroft, courtesy of NME.

P-Rod won the gold medal this afternoon in the X Games 15 Skateboard Street Men’s Final. The 24-year old Rodriguez beat out the dreadlocked 14-year old phenom Nyjah Huston (silver) and 34-year old SLC punk Adam Dyet (bronze). Rodriguez finished second in last year’s games to MTV reality star Ryan Sheckler (6th) who had to leave the last session of the competition early due to an ankle injury.

I’d point you to ESPN.com so that you could read more about it but it’s a strange struggle to find much coverage of the event. Watch the video above of Rodriguez starring in a new Nike SB commercial featuring appearances by Kobe Bryant and “Doughboy”.

EA Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2010

The latest version of Tiger Woods PGA Tour for the Wii now includes the ability to play disc golf on all 27 courses featured in the game.  I’m planning to play DG a lot more this summer so this should help motivate me to make the trek to Warwick on Saturday mornings.  I don’t know if you can throw forehands or hammers, but I need to work on my backhand anyway.  (Nice look, BOB!)

Sign the petition, started by Matthew Jamieson, to express your interest in having a place to play disc golf in NYC.

New York City has the lowest number of disc golf courses per capita of any of the major metropolitan areas in the US. In a 30 mile radius from the city center, there are less than half a dozen courses and not a single official course exists within the city limits. The purpose of this petition is to help persuade the City of New York Parks Department to consider disc golf as a viable recreation activity in the city, and demonstrate that there is significant interest in the sport. Please sign this petition if you are a lover of disc golf, disc sports or outdoor recreation in general, and please feel free to pass it on to others that may be interested.

I don’t think it’s viable unless the courses are located in parks in the Bronx or Staten Island, but I’d love to be able to take public transportation to play.  The map below shows the 5 “NYC area” courses in proximity to Central Park and Prospect Park.

View NY/NJ Disc Golf Courses in a larger map

According to MediaBistro’s MediaJobsDaily, Dan Baum was fired from the New Yorker in 2007 but he’s writing about it now using Twitter.  Instead of micro-blogging, he’s often posting incomplete sentences that are continued in subsequent messages.  One of his “posts” spans 10 tweets while another covers 63 during more than two and a half hours.  The web is always evolving because it’s shaped by its global community of users, but this kind of storytelling is best suited to the articles Dan used to write for the New Yorker.  I do appreciate his experiment with new media, but I recomend that he start a blog.

Kenny Powers (Danny McBride) became an overnight sensation after closing out the 7th game of the World Series during his rookie season with the Atlanta Braves.  The then 19-year old relief pitcher’s success brought him multimillion dollar deals, endorsements, magazines covers, and his own catchphrase, “You’re fucking out!”.  But his meteoric rise was soon followed by a catastrophic collapse as his press conferences and post-game interviews became platforms for  insults against his team and fans.  His career starts to tailspin as he flips the bird to everyone around him and gets shipped from team to team, no longer capable of maintaining his 101-mph fastball and unable to repeat his early success.

“Several shitty years later”, Kenny returns to his hometown with only his truck and jet ski–broke, indebted to the IRS, and an unwelcome guest at his brother Dustin’s (John Hawkes) house. He gets work as a gym teacher at his old middle school and learns that his ex-girlfriend, the curvaceous April Buchanon (Katy Mixon), is the school’s art teacher and is engaged to their starstruck boss, Principal Cutler (Andrew Daly).  Kenny has emotionally reached rock-bottom but he is determined to hook up with April while convinced that he’ll return to the big leagues.  The words from his audiobook, “You’re Fuckin’ Out.  I’m Fuckin’ In.”, serve as his inspiration:

“Undaunted, I knew the game was mine to win.  Just like in life, all of my successes depend on me.  I’m the man who has the ball.  I’m the man who can throw it faster than fuck, so that is why I am better than everyone in the world.  Kiss my ass and suck my dick, everyone.”

Eastbound & Down airs on HBO on Sunday nights at 10:30pm EST

It’s no surprise that Bitch Slap was created by Rick Jacobson and Eric Gruendemann who both worked on Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess.  Originally planned for a release in late 2008, the T&A-filled film is jokingly rated “PG-DD” and should finally be out this Spring according to the website.  Fans of Hercules and Xena should be pleased with cameos by Kevin Sorbo, Lucy Lawless, and Renee O’Connor.

Bitch Slap stars Julia Voth (“Trixie”), Erin Cummings (“Hel”), and America Olivio (“Camero”) as “three bad girls (a down-and-out stripper, a drug-running killer and a corporate power-broker) as they arrive at a remote desert hideaway to extort massive booty from a ruthless underworld kingpin”.  It’s a 21st century homage to B-movie/exploitation flicks with a look inspired by the work of Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino circa Sin City and Grindhouse.  It could be one of the best or worst movies of the year.  Maybe it’ll just go straight to DVD.

The website, designed by Hybrid Logic Media, is worth checking out…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6X4fQa6Ea0&hl=en&fs=1]