Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Clinton looks for votes, gets marriage proposal
WASHINGTON (CNN) — Voters ask a lot of the nation's White House hopefuls, but Democrat Hillary Clinton looked particularly taken aback by a request from one attendee at a Friday campaign event in the Los Angeles area.
"Hillary, marry me, baby," a man yelled at the New York senator as she finished her economic address and prepared to take questions.
The crowd erupted in laughter, and Clinton looked genuinely shocked as she turned to face the questioner.
"That is certainly the kindest offer I've had in a while," Clinton said to loud cheers.
But she added immediately, "I'd probably be arrested."
Clinton visited delegate-rich California — one of the more than two dozen states to vote February 5 — to lay her economic stimulus package.
The shouted proposal was markedly friendlier than an incident in New Hampshire Monday, when a man yelled at her to "Iron my shirt."
"Ah, the remnants of sexism — alive and well," Clinton responded then.
– CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney
Monday, January 7, 2008
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Santa in g-string gets DUI charge
better kept wrapped.
A man in a Santa hat was arrested Sunday night for investigation of
drunken driving after he was spotted outside Grauman's Chinese Theater
in Hollywood wearing a wig, a red lace camisole and a purple G-string,
police said.
"We are pretty sure this is not the Santa Claus," Deputy Chief Ken Garner said.
The suspect was booked into jail after his blood-alcohol level
measured just above the state's legal limit of .08, police said. He
was later released on $5,000 bail.
The man, who is 6 feet 4 inches tall and weighs 280 pounds, also wore
black leg warmers and black shoes. His car was towed to an impound
yard, police said.
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Muhammad Rocked the Casbah
- The Kominas - Dishoom Bebe
- Vote Hezbollah - Poppy Fields
- Secret Trial Five - Middle Eastern Zombies
- Al-Thawra - Naura al Hamra
Listen to the Music
Muhammad Rocked the Casbah
San Antonio's Muslim punk scene goes national, and Europe is next.
Lydia Crafts | December 14, 2007 | Books and the Culture
Kourosh Poursalehi was a 16-year-old Sufi from San Antonio in 2004 when he created a song that made a fictional punk-rock movement come alive. Hypothesizing that no one in the world was like him, Poursalehi went looking for other Muslim punks and discovered The Taqwacores, a novel written by Muslim-convert Michael Muhammad Knight about a fictional underground Muslim punk-rock scene in upstate New York. In the book, the punks called themselves taqwacore—a combination of the Arabic word taqwa, meaning consciousness of God, and hardcore.
Poursalehi thought the taqwacores were real and set out to meet them. He found a poem written by Knight at the beginning of the book called "Muhammad was a punk rocker" that portrays the Prophet rebelling against the oppressors of his time, smashing idols and sporting a spiky hairdo. Poursalehi put the poem to music—spawning the first-ever taqwacore song.
Article continued...
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Clubs Bloom in the Desert
The 360 bar at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel.
Dubai Travel Guide
From the New York Times - December 9, 2007
Party Destination | Dubai
Clubs Bloom in the Desert
By SETH SHERWOOD
SIX years ago, Dion Mavath, an Australian D.J., flew to Dubai to take up residency at an upstart local nightclub. Dubai, a fledgling metropolis, was still mostly known as an airport hub and a shipping port, and the local night-life scene, he quickly found, was nearly as sterile and undistinguished as the flat Middle Eastern desert landscape.
"It was dire," he recalled with a laugh. "It was very backwards. There was absolutely no musical knowledge whatsoever."
But few places on the planet have transformed themselves with as much deliberateness and aplomb — to say nothing of oil money — as the tiny city-state on the Persian Gulf. Three mammoth palm-shaped artificial islands have risen from the sea, and scores of five-star hotels and futuristic skyscrapers are exploding from the barren ground.
Amid them, the Middle East's most dynamic clubs and chic lounges have also coalesced from the dust, boosted by an enormous expatriate community, tolerant local mores (a Dubai branch of Hooters is reportedly in the works) and a proliferation of glittery events like the Dubai International Film Festival. From a night-life backwater, Dubai has become the kind of city where you might run into Michael Jordan at the Buddha Bar or stumble across Naomi Campbell celebrating her birthday with a multiday bash, as she did last year.
"Everything is growing exponentially in Dubai, and the party scene is just another facet of that," said Mr. Mavath, who plies his trade from Miami to Malaysia. "Dubai is one of the leading scenes in the world right now for the D.J. community."
The evidence is on view every week at Peppermint (www.peppermint-club.com), a Thursday-only megaclub at the Habtoor Grand Resort, with six bars, 50 V.I.P . tables and its own Facebook page. The boldface D.J.'s that have propelled the jam-packed, Dolce & Gabbana-sporting crowds include Carl Cox and Derrick May.
At the Madinat Jumeirah hotel is Trilogy ( www.madinatjumeirah.com/trilogy), a members-only house-music center. (Travelers can apply for free membership cards through Trilogy's Web site.) Jazzy Jeff, David Guetta and scores of other faces from the Mount Rushmore of D.J.-dom have graced the soaring, sultanically decorated three-level palace. The rooftop lounge offers sublime views of the gulf and the sail-shaped Burj Al Arab hotel, the tallest in the world.
Though Dubai is thousands of miles from St.-Tropez, the Middle Eastern princes, the Russian moguls, the dolled-up Euro girls and the abundant wannabes who pack the plush baroque interiors of the 400 Club (Fairmont Dubai, www.the400club.com) are oblivious. Everyone from Roberto Cavalli to Ludacris has luxuriated amid the crystal chandeliers and gilded mirrors of this year-old club, where a chilled six-liter bottle of Dom Pérignon runs a cool 31,000 dirhams, about $8,447, at 3.74 dirhams to the dollar.
For a more populist night out, lounge chair travelers can go around the world in 80 bars, stopping for fruity Polynesian cocktails at Trader Vic's at the Crowne Plaza Dubai ( www.tradervics.com), mojitos at Cuban-themed Malecon (www.dxbmarine.com) and vodka à go-go at the Red Square Discothèque in the Hotel Moscow ( www.moscowhoteldubai.com).
The only crimps in the social scene are a lack of options for gay partygoers (in 2001, authorities shut down a club for holding a gay night featuring a transvestite D.J. from England), the prohibitions on alcohol during the Islamic holy period of Ramadan and the year-round 3 a.m. closing time.
But as you would expect from an energetic juggernaut of a city, revelers make up for the limited partying hours by redoubling their efforts. Between midnight and last call, Mr. Mavath said, "people just go mental."
