Our Bloody Valentine?

Say it ain't so but apparently it's so as the Red Sox are about to hire whack job  Bobby Valentine to manage the team. This is the right move argues Dan Shaugnessy but his spotty track record of ego driven contrarianism is raising eyebrows around the league. Maybe this is what the team needs but it pushes the Red Sox further into sideshow territory and will be a distraction eventually.

An interesting read from the New York Times as John Leland examines a group of plugged in 20 somethings who are constantly using smartphones in social situations. It's a decent stab at Tom Wolfe style journalism but the subject matter, annoying 20 somethings, doesn't have the cache of  "limousine liberals" or even "radical chic" trustafarians. But, as Wolfe would say,  the "surest cure for vanity is lonliness" and someday the iPhone will stop ringing.(mine did but apparently Verizon expects to get paid)

Hey Guns and Roses are still around albeit with a single Gun(Axl) and a few plastic Roses. The band recently played the Izod Center in New Jersey and gave a so-so performance. Read the review here courtesy of NJ.com.

I think we've established New Orleans as cool but a new collaborative art project mixes sound and eccentric construction, resulting in what its creators call “a shantytown-sound laboratory writes Campbell Robertson.

From Florida(where else?) we have this report of a draq queen injecting Fix A Flat and cement into some poor womans ass. I know health care is costly but aren't there safer cosmetic surgery options? What can you do with a bicycle pump and PVC pipe?

Apparently young  financiers are having a rough go of it writes Kevin Roose. So are we supposed to feel sorry for them?

When I heard word that someone had started an Occupy Austin movement I had to wonder why. If you can put up with searing heat in the summer, it's by far the best place to live with an unbelievable music scene, progressive politics, excellent food, and a low cost of living. Apparently the citizens of Austin agree as a recently conducted survey has 88% of Austinites giving the city a thumbs up. Here in Maine we hover below the Mendoza line though those sober enough to respond gave it an appreciative middle finger.