Sorry, Jewish 13-year olds around the nation. But you can stop trying now: there’s no way you’ll come up with the best Bar Mitzvah invitation of 2013. That honor belongs to a young man named Daniel, who raps about his life-altering event on May 11 in a video that is creating quite the viral sensation. Set against the instrumental of “Welcome to Atlanta,” the online invite includes appearances by Charles Barkley and the Mayor of Atlanta; is sponsored by Bacardi; and features a promise that there will be “straight kosher munchin.” Seriously, what more could one ask for when turning into a man? This is a must-watch, THGers: Bar Mitzvah Invitation of the Century
Ed Koch, the feisty former Mayor of New York City who served three terms in City Hall, passed away early this morning. He was 88. Spokesman George Arzt confirmed the sad news and said a funeral will take place Monday at Temple Emanu-El in Manhattan. Koch left office in 1990 after helping save the city from fiscal ruin. He was known for his bold, straightforward responses to nearly every question, including why he ended up as a life-long bachelor: “My answer to questions on this subject is simply, ‘F— off.’ There have to be some private matters left.” An outspoken supporter of gay rights and known for his strong Jewish faith, Koch worked as a political pundit; movie/food critic; and even as a judge on The People’s Court after he retired. He also played himself on Saturday Night Live and in films such as The First Wives Club . But health problems also plagued Koch for many years. He was hospitalized twice in 2012, first for anemia in September and then for a respiratory infection in December. He returned on two occasions last month with fluid buildup in his lungs. Seven years ago, on his own tombstone, Koch wrote an epitaph that reads: “He was fiercely proud of his Jewish faith. He fiercely defended the City of New York, and he fiercely loved its people. Above all, he loved his country, the United States of America, in whose armed forces he served in World War II.”
Oscar-nominated feature No by director Pablo Larraín starring Gael García Bernal are among the ten Galas that will screen at the 30th Miami International Film Festival. The ten-day fest will host 117 features and 12 shorts from 41 countries with an emphasis on films from Latin America. [ Related: River Phoenix’s Last Film To Debut At Miami International Film Festival ] No , which screened at the recent Sundance Film Festival , is based on the true story about an ad executive who comes up with an ad campaign to defeat Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in 1988. The film will screen in Miami’s CineDwntwn Galas along with other Sundance offerings, Twenty Feet From Stardom (Opening Night Film) by U.S/ director Morgan Neville, Sebastian Junger’s Which Way Is the Front Line from Here? The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington by Sebastian Junger, screening in the Documentary Competition along with Marc Silver’s Who Is Dayani Cristal? , Valentine Road , Gideon’s Army and Blackfish / Radius-TWC’s Twenty Feet from Stardom turns the spotlight to some of the world’s biggest singers’ backbone, their backup singers. Maiken Baird and Michelle Major’s Venus and Serena will screen Awards Night March 9th. The doc will spotlight the American tennis superstars siblings. As previously announced, the festival will honor two remarkable directors with Career Achievement Tributes: renowned Swedish writer-director Lasse Hallström ( My Life as a Dog , What’s Eating Gilbert Grape ) and Spanish producer, writer, and Oscar-winning director Fernando Trueba ( Belle Epoque , Chico & Rita ). MIFF will screen the directors’ latest works including The Hypnotist by Hallström and The Artist and the Model by Trueba. The 30th Miami International Film Festival runs March 1 – 10. Galas, documentary and Ibero-American competition categories follow. For a list of further MIFF films, visit their website . CineDwntwn Galas Amor Cronico (USA/Cuba, directed by Jorge Perrugorría) The Artist and the Model (Spain, directed by Fernando Trueba) The Boy Who Smells Like Fish (Canada/ Mexico, directed by Analeine Cal y Mayor) Dark Blood (Netherlands, directed by George Sluizer) Eenie Meenie Miney Moe (USA, directed by Jokes Yanes) The Hunt (Jagten) (Denmark, directed by Thomas Vinterberg) The Hypnotist (Sweden, directed by Lasse Hallström) NO (Chile/USA, directed by Pablo Larraín) *2013 Oscar Nominated for Best Foreign Film Twenty Feet From Stardom (USA, directed by Morgan Neville) Venus and Serena (USA, directed by Maiken Baird and Michelle Major) Documentary Competition: Viva Cuba Libre: Rap Is War (USA, directed by Jesse Acevedo) Blackfish (USA, directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite) The Crash Reel (USA, directed by Lucy Walker) Cubamerican (USA, directed by Jose Enrique Pardo Far Out Isn’t Far Enough: The Tomi Ungerer Story (USA, directed by Brad Bernstein) Gideon’s Army (USA, directed by Dawn Porter) Sagrada: The Mystery of Creation (Sagrada: El misteri de la creació) (Switzerland, directed by Stefan Haupt) Valentine Road (USA, directed by Marta Cummingham) Which Way Is the Front Line From Here? The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington (USA, directed by Sebastian Junger) Who Is Dayani Cristal? (United Kingdom/Mexico, directed by Marc Silver) Ibero-American Competition (fist-time feature filmmakers from Spain, Portugal and Latin America): The Boy Who Smells Like Fish (Mexico/Canada, directed by Analeine Cal y Mayor) Edificio Royal (Colombia/Venezuela/Germany, directed by Iván Wild) Good Luck, Sweetheart (Boa Sorte, Meu Amor) (Brazil, directed by Daniel Aragão) Miguel, San Miguel (Chile, directed by Matías Cruz) Molasses (Melaza) (Cuba/France/Panama, directed by Carlos Días Lechuga) No Autumn, No Spring (Sin otoño, sin primavera) (Ecuador/Colombia/France, directed by Iván Mora) Solo (Uruguay/Argentina/Netherlands/France, directed by Guillermo Rocamora) The Swimming Pool (La piscina) (Cuba/Venezuela directed by Carlos Machado Quintela) Villegas (Argentina/Netherlands/France, directed by Gonzalo Tobal)
Cory on-the-spot Via ABCNews Newark Mayor Cory Booker Saves Dog From Freezing Cold While out working on a story in freezing New Jersey, a reporter and camera crew from New York station WABC-TV noticed a dog left out in the cold. Hours later, when they passed by again and saw that the dog was still outside, they decided to take the issue to Twitter, and the mayor. Reporter Toni Yates tweeted N.J. Mayor Cory Booker and WABC. In the tweet, she applauded Newark for its heat help, but added, “Make pet owners get their dogs out of the cold.” In another tweet, she wrote that she asked the block captain to “do something, call someone,” but doubted he would. People began re-tweeting the messages, and soon enough the mayor was on the scene with the shivering dog. “This is brutal weather. This dog is shaking really bad and you just can’t leave your dogs out here on a day like this and go away and expect them to be OK,” the mayor told WABC. “Hypothermia on any animal including a human animal will set in pretty quickly. So this is very sad. You can just feel the dog shaking pretty badly.” Booker picked up the dog and put it into the back of a police car. Booker, 43, called the dog’s owner and told them it was unacceptable to leave the dog outside in the freezing weather, WABC reported. The owners said they were in Queens, N.Y., and did not know that Cha Cha had gotten outside. They said it was an accident and thanked the mayor for saving the dog, a new mother. We’re sure Mayor Booker did this “heroic” act of kindness from his heart, but a lil’ good PR before the campaign doesn’t hurt either right? Image via WABC
We keep trying to tell you that race matters ! Black and Latino students in NYC who attend poverty stricken schools are more likely to end up with teachers who have received unsatisfactory ratings. Via NYPost reports : Teachers who received bad performance ratings in the past school year were likelier to be teaching in high-poverty schools, or in schools with high percentages of black, Hispanic or low-achieving students, a new analysis found. The StudentsFirstNY report on the 3.2 percent of teachers were rated “unsatisfactory” — known as a “U-rating” — for the 2011-12 school year found large differences in how they were distributed throughout the school system. The analysis found that students in high-poverty schools were at least three times more likely to be taught by a U-rated teacher than were students in low-poverty schools. “An ineffective teacher in any classroom is a failure of the system at the expense of students,” said StudentsFirstNY Executive Director Micah Lasher, a former legislative liaison for Mayor Bloomberg. “A concentration of ineffective teachers serving specific student populations is an injustice.” Among the group’s eight recommendations, including having the city and teachers’ union reach a deal on a new teacher evaluation system by next week’s Jan. 17 deadline, are financial incentives for good teachers who stay in high-needs schools. Failing to reach a deal by the deadline would cost the city at least $250 million in state education aid. StudentsFirstNY also calls for a cap on the number of ineffective teachers who are allowed to remain at one school from year to year. The city currently does have at least two programs that offers incentives for teachers who agree to work in high needs schools – one that offers recruitment and tuition reimbursements, and the other that offers $15,000 in housing support in return for a 3-year commitment. The teachers’ union has also said that high concentrations of U-rated teachers can be caused by other factors — such as antagonism between a principal and his or her teachers. A 2011 investigation by the Department of Education found that the current principal at Fordham HS for the Arts – where 20 percent of teachers received a U-rating in 2011-12 – tried to force out teachers she didn’t like by giving them bad ratings without actually having observed their teaching. So the good news is not all these teachers are really as bad as it looks, but the bad news is enough of them earned their bad ratings for us to be fairly certain that our kids are not receiving the same quality of education that white students in more affluent schools are getting? Yeah… This doesn’t seem like a newsflash, but this needs to be fixed quickly. We wouldn’t be surprised if they discovered the same kind of inequalities in cities like Chicago where youth violence is rampant either. We need to be concerned about who is teaching our kids! Shutterstock
You can relax now, Miley Cyrus . We’ve all been had. In light of the Justin Bieber pot smoking scandal, a Twitter campaign titled “Cutting for Bieber” had allegedly cropped up, with fans expressing their disappointment in the singer by self-mutilating. Among other stars, Cyrus has spoken out against the troubling movement. But new reports confirm this trend was nothing but a hoax created by 4Chan , a social media site with a history of pranks. 4Chan is also responsible for a fake Morgan Freeman diatribe against the media, as well as the rumor in October that Bieber had cancer. So well played, 4Chan. Except for the part where you exploited a legitimate illness and spread the idea of self-injury as a method of expression.
With the Washington Redskins enjoying success for the first time in decades, there’s been talk in the nation’s capital of bringing the team’s home field back to D.C., as opposed to its current location in Maryland. But Mayor Vincent Gray has a condition if such a transfer were to take place: The team’s name will need to change. “I think it has become a lightning rod, and I would love to be able to sit down with the team… and see if a change should be made,” Gray said of the moniker many find offensive to Native Americans. “There’s a precedent for this, and I think there needs to be a dispassionate discussion about this, and do the right thing.” It’s true that many college mascots have acknowledged the insensitive nature of their mascots and made a change. Formerly Red Raiders, Colgate University athletes are now simply “Raiders.” But with fans of the squad arguing over the recent Robert Griffin III injury , do they really need another topic to debate? What do you think? Should the name “Redskins” be changed? Yes, it’s offensive! No, who cares?!? View Poll »
Sounds like Apple might need to step up their game… Lenovo Unveils 27-Inch Tablet That Converts To A Gaming Table Apple might be makin’ it rain gadgets everytime we turn around, but they might need to take it up a few notches when this new convertible desktop table tablet hits the market this summer. via ABC News How badly have you wanted to turn your iPad or, better yet, touchscreen all-in-one PC into a table? OK, so maybe you haven’t thought of it. But don’t worry, Lenovo has. At CES 2013 the company unveiled its IdeaCentre Horizon, a 27-inch desktop all-in-one that transforms into a table. The all-in-one can actually be purchased with a separate table stand with wheels. But… why would you want to do that? It’s all about the software you can run on the desktop. Yes, it is a normal Windows 8 PC, but when you push the screen back so it lies flat, it automatically launches Lenovo’s own Aura software. So basically, the high priced ipad on steroids goes from this…. ……..to this The highlight of the machine is the game play. You can launch a series of tabletop games, including air hockey, Monopoly and even roulette, and the whole family can gather round to play. Lenovo will also sell physical game accessories, including e-dice, joysticks and strikers. Of course, all of that is going to cost you more than the average all-in-one. The Horizon will cost $1,699 when it goes on sale this summer. What say you, Bossipers? Would you cop this? Photo Credit: ABC News
It’s been a violent year in Chicago , but long-time residents of Chatham are still fighting to keep their neighborhood safe after the death of one of their own rocked the community. And with the recession affecting small businesses, a once vibrant, middle-class neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side seems to be hanging on by a thread. Via The New York Times : The neighborhood’s best-known restaurants were failing, its crime rate was on the rise, and for the first time that anyone could remember there were foreclosures, with once tidy bungalows sitting empty and dark. For all that, the social scientists studying Chicago neighborhoods in 2010 were betting that the middle-class enclave of Chatham, on the city’s South Side, would remain stable through the recession. It had done so for decades, while surrounded by impoverished areas. It had somehow absorbed a wave of newcomers from recently demolished housing projects. And the researchers’ data suggested that its strong identity and scores of active block groups had helped protect residents from larger economic threats and offered clues about how to preserve threatened urban communities all over the country. Chatham should hold, barring some unforeseen cataclysm. The cataclysm hit on May 19 of that year. That night, a group of assailants jumped Thomas Wortham IV, an off-duty police officer and Iraq war veteran, as he was leaving his parents’ house. He resisted and was shot, bleeding to death on the street where he grew up. The entire city seemed to stop for breath, holding a memorial attended by hundreds of fellow police officers and citizens, Mayor Richard M. Daley and Gov. Pat Quinn of Illinois. “We were blindsided by this; blindsided by what happened to Tommy,” said his mother, Carolyn Wortham. “And yes, you begin to question everything.” In Chatham, it seemed, all bets were off. Many residents began to think the unthinkable, that maybe it was time to escape the place they had done so much to build. The community’s response to the crisis would test a theory emerging from an ambitious, nearly decade-long study of all of Chicago’s neighborhoods — that a neighborhood’s character shapes its economic future at least as much as more obvious factors like income levels and foreclosure rates. “If Chatham could maintain its relative stability despite such great challenges,” said William Julius Wilson, a professor of sociology and social policy at Harvard and the author of the 1987 classic, “The Truly Disadvantaged,” “then I think this concept of a neighborhood effect will be a landmark contribution, helping us understand how to prevent the out-migration of citizens and strengthen neighborhoods” at risk of falling into poverty. …Older residents, perpetually anxious that the younger generation is losing their values of tidiness and mutual respect, now had visible evidence of social erosion. They saw it in the habits of their new neighbors, many of them moving from the Robert Taylor Homes, which were torn down in the mid-2000s. “The big change going on is that the grandparents are moving out, and some of the younger kids coming in here are picking up behaviors that you would never have seen in Chatham before,” said Worlee Glover, a salesman who runs a blog called Concerned Citizens of Chatham. “Loitering out on 79th. Walking up and down the street, eating out of a bag. Eating out on the porch. Those kinds of things.” “Chatham and neighboring Avalon Park are both working class communities, not core ghetto areas, and both were hit hard by recession, particularly Chatham, which got hit economically and with incidents of violence.Twice in previous weeks, young men from outside the area had fired shots into the scrum around the basketball courts at Cole Park, just across the street from the Worthams’ house. Cole Park, all picnics and playgrounds when Thomas IV was growing up, now resembled a street party on most evenings, with teenagers coming just to hang out, Mrs. Wortham said. Seniors and parents of young children stayed away. “People came from all over the South Side to play at Cole Park for the very reason that it was a safe park,” said Thomas Wortham III, his father. “But it got to where no one was controlling it.” Chatham has more than a hundred block groups, citizen volunteers who monitor the tidiness of neighborhood lawns, garbage, and noise, as well as organize events, Mr. Tate said. The neighborhood has something else that many nearby areas do not: uniformly small buildings. Neat rows of one-story brick bungalows and ranch houses stand shoulder to shoulder, at attention, astride modest commercial strips, with few buildings more than three stories tall. …The ultimate verdict, for Chatham and for the neighborhood effect, may lie in what the Worthams and people like them do in historically cohesive urban communities threatened by creeping poverty and violence. “I sure did consider leaving when Tommy was killed,” Mrs. Wortham said. She took a deep breath. “But you know, whenever something like this happens, there’s plenty of blame to go around. People want to blame the city, the community organizations, the churches, all that. But nothing changes unless people look after their children, and the neighbors do, too. If people aren’t behaving, you say something. When I went to school, if I did something wrong, by the time I got home my mother knew about it.” Community involvement is key in any area. Do you think Chicago’s lack of racial integration on social, economic, and educational scales is a factor in part of the problem? Images via AP
These freakazoid junkies have the same Mom… and when cops rolled up on them parked and getting high, they got popped for incest too. According to The Daily Mail , the half siblings had their baby in a broke down car; the one-year-old was only wearing a t-shirt and a diaper even though it was 38 degrees outside: A half brother and sister in an incestuous relationship were arrested on Friday after police found them smoking meth in a car with their one-year-old baby. Danielle Lacey, 22, and Brandon Lesli, 35, from Lake Stevens, Seattle were charged with endangerment with a controlled substance, criminal mistreatment and incest. They share the same mother. Police were called after witnesses spotted Lacey and Leslie sitting in the car with the baby and the windows rolled up. They told a local resident who they knew they were smoking meth. Daniel Price told Fox13: ‘They said they were out of gas and asked if they could borrow $10. I knew something was going on so I went inside and they told me they were smoking meth with the baby in the car. ‘If they want to go out and do that themselves, hopefully they don’t hurt anyone, but when you have a one-year-old involved that’s a lot different.’ When police arrived, Lacey was holding the baby in the front passenger seat. It was 38 degrees and the baby was only wearing a t-shirt and diaper. There was no blanket to keep him warm. Because the car was out of gas, the heater was not on. The police report said Lacey appeared to be high on methamphetamine because she exhibited sudden, jerky movements and the inability to concentrate. When she was interviewed by police, the 22-year-old admitted she had smoked meth with her baby present several times before and also with her other children, aged five and six. She said she has been using the drug on and off for the last six years. The baby has been handed over to Child Protective Services, and Lacey’s other children are in the care of her father. CPS said they had been in contact with Lacey once before but would not give any details. The couple are being held in Snohomish County Jail on $150,000 bail. According to Fox13, both Lacey and Leslie have criminal records which include assault, theft and possession of a controlled substance. Those poor kids…SMH. Images via facebook/tumblr
