Monthly Archives: May 2011

How people are helping Joplin’s relief efforts

Posted on by
Reply

After talking with family and friends about the destructive tornadoes in Joplin, we were struck by a feeling of helplessness. We had seen the pictures. We had seen the front pages. Now, we just wanted to see some hope, and something we could do to help.

Luckily, there’s the Internet.

I’m impressed by how people used the web for good to spread the messages of how to help. There are multiple ways, but here are some ways people are doing what they humbly can to help the people of Joplin.

———

“ONE STATE. ONE SPIRIT. ONE MIZZOU.”

The University of Missouri is partnering with the Heart of Missouri United Way to sell tornado relief T-Shirts for $14.95 apiece. All proceeds will go to support the United Way’s United for Joplin campaign, the press release says.

———

DONATING VIA TEXT

Texting the word JOPLIN to 864833 will assist the United Way’s recovery efforts with a $10 donation, which will be added to your cell phone bill.

———

DONATING ONLINE

This is a no-brainer, right? But there are so many options, including:

Of course, these are just some of the organizations taking donations.

———

HELP THE JOPLIN GLOBE

A former professor of mine from the University of Missouri posted this on Facebook:

“If you can spare a couple of days (or more) the Joplin Globe could use your help – reporters, editors, photogs — to relieve exhausted staffers. This would be a volunteer thing.”

The post included a Gmail address, but I won’t post it, lest the phishers, spammers and perverts get to it. But if you’re interested, let me know and I’ll connect you. If you’re a journalist near the area and can spare the time, it would be invaluable for you to donate your time and skills in this way.

UPDATE: I’ve heard from Laura Kelly, the contact for people wishing to volunteer for the Joplin Globe. She writes:

Please let folks know that we are covered for now, but are keeping names/contacts on file just in case. Response has been outstanding.

The Missouri Press Association has set up a special fund to help Joplin Globe journalists, to which you can donate here.

———

We’ll be warned that there are people trying to scam us, and there will be. There will be people commodifying someone else’s pain and taking advantage of people’s good intentions. But I don’t think those are reasons to not give or not help. They’re just reasons to be cautious.

Whether you’re earnestly trying to help in the spirit of stewardship, or out of a feeling of guilt, or to feel something other than helpless, there are ways to help.

5 best crazy Macho Man videos on YouTube

Posted on by
1

Let’s not mince words: Randy Savage’s “Macho Man” character was one of the craziest that ever appeared in the World Wrestling Federation. And this is an organization that churned out crazy by the boatload.

Not only did Savage epitomize the cult of masculinity in pro-wrestling, he celebrated it, cultivating a persona around “macho” and “manly” behavior. Or, a persona around what World Wrestling Federation writers of the 1980s assumed macho, manly behavior to be.

If you never saw any WWF segments in the late ’80s or early ’90s, then you have no context for how incoherent these guys could be in their interviews. Admittedly, today’s wrestlers will win no awards for their oratories, but they make “Macho Man” Randy Savage and The Ultimate Warrior look like Barack Obama and 2001-era Tony Blair. Hell, even Jodie Foster’s Nell was more coherent than some of the segments with Macho Man and The Warrior.

I first discovered the WWF when I was 9 years old and my friend Adrian showed some of the Saturday morning show. I was hooked. These guys wore flamboyant, neon colors and screamed at each other unintelligibly. In other words, these guys were my primer for 80% of American gay bars; I just didn’t know it at the time. I watched until I was 12 and my father told me that he was uncomfortable with me watching a “sport” where so many of the stars used steroids and drugs. (I’ve thanked my father for this, by the way).

So, if your father also prevented you from watching WWF, or you had too much class to watch it, then you probably didn’t get to see any of the defining moments of Randy Savage’s crazy “Macho Man” persona. Luckily, thanks to YouTube, these videos are available.

Without further adieu, I present the best of Macho Man’s ridiculous WWF/WCW moments. Rest in Peace, MegaPower.

———

Miss Elizabeth’s decision

As a kid, I’m sure I earnestly watched this, thinking it was the stuff of sports legend. Now, I watch it and realize it was a soap opera for the guys who mocked their wives for watching “Dynasty” but were too insecure to admit they wanted to watch it, too.

———

Jake “The Snake” Roberts’ cobra bites “Macho Man”

Savage was a good guy at this point, and Roberts was a bad guy, and their fighting and feuding had the same macho posturing that all the other wrestlers had in their feuds. Except Roberts had a cobra, which trumps the normal tough guy talk. Roberts lured Savage to the ring, beat the crap out of him, tied him in the ropes and then let his cobra bit him. According to Roberts’ “Pick Your Poison” DVD, the cobra bit a lot longer than he was supposed to bite. Also in that clip, Ted DiBiase is inexplicably shown talking about being bitten. But never mind the Million Dollar Man; this shows a cobra biting a dude in the ring. I’ve watched lots of hissy fights on “Melrose Place” and “Desperate Housewives,” and very few things have come close to being this awesome.

———

Savage and Mean Gene Okerlund

There were other great interviews Macho Man did with Mean Gene Okerlud, but there are too many good quotes in this:

  • “My curiosity is killin’ me just like a cat would be killed! By the curiosity!”
  • “Your mustache is crooked!”
  • “Your beard is a little sideways!”

    • Every time this guy says “Yeaaaaaah,” I think of White Zombie’s “More Human Than Human.”

    ———

    “Be A Man, Hulk!”

    The lyrics are priceless:

    They call you Hollywood? Don’t make me laugh
    Cuz your movies and your actin’ skills are both trash
    Your movies straight to video, the box office can’t stand ya
    While I got myself a feature role in “Spider-Man”

    That feature role in “Spider-Man”?

    ———

    White-haired Randy Savage plays with his own action figure

    Randy Savage plays with a special doll commemorating his outfit at Wrestlemania VII. Where he lost and was forced to retire. But he looked pretty anyway.

    ———

    Unfortunately, YouTube didn’t have my favorite ridiculous clip, in which Macho Man lost to the Ultimate Warrior and then was forced to retire. Sensational Sherri, Savage’s manager at the time, got upset and beat the crap out of him until Miss Elizabeth appeared in the crowd and then beat the hell out of Sherri. Macho Man then realized he’d been a jerk, and then proposed to Miss Elizabeth. They got married at Summer Slam later that year. It was ridiculous, and I loved it.

    ———

    RELATED

    INFOGRAPHIC: Pro-wrestling deaths compared, including the Macho Man’s death

    A tale of two visits: Obama and the Queen in Ireland

    Posted on by
    Reply

    Yesterday, President Obama and his wife Michelle visited Ireland. Last week, Queen Elizabeth II was in Ireland. All in all, a pretty big week for the country.

    Obama was there pay tribute to his lineage in Moneygall, which Mark Landler of The New York Times described as “a postage-stamp Irish hamlet of 300.” Obama hugged people, shook hands and — most importantly — had a Guinness.

    The Queen’s visit was more somber, as she addressed — but came short of apologizing for — the history of violence between England and Ireland. There were several protestors, and the pictures of them are more striking than the photos of the Queen’s visit. To see photos from The Big Picture, click here.

    The way the two visits were played in the press highlight the differences of the trips. The usually playful Irish Examiner had a clean, serious front for Elizabeth’s visit, but returned to its normal relaxed form with a scrapbook-y collage of Obama’s visit.

    ———

    THE QUEEN’S VISIT TO IRELAND

    The Irish Times focused on the conciliatory nature of the Queen’s visit, showing her with Irish president Mary McAleese laying wreaths in honor of the dead Irish at the Garden of Remembrance in Dublin.

    Miriam Lord writes:

    This was the moment many thought they would never see.

    The Queen of England, standing in the Garden of Remembrance, head bowed in a mark of respect for the men and women who fought and died for Irish freedom.

    Here, in this revered shrine to republicanism, the strains of God Save the Queen swelled in the quiet of a Dublin afternoon, played with the full blessing of the President of Ireland and the political establishment.

    These electrifying minutes signalled the end of a long and very difficult journey, when two neighbouring heads of state finally stood together as equals in a display of friendship and reconciliation.

    To read the rest of Lord’s story, go here.

    The Irish Examiner showed several photos of the Queen’s visit, but the largest play went to the photo of Queen Elizabeth II signing the guestbook at Áras an Uachtaráin, the official residence of the president of Ireland.

    The importance of this was summed up in the main copy block under the photos:

    At precisely 12:47 yesterday afternoon the course of Anglo-Irish relations changed forever when Queen Elizabeth II signed the visitors’ book at Aras an Uachtarain. It was a deeply psychological and symbolic moment, an acknowledgement by the British head of state that she was in Ireland as a visitor, a guest of the Irish head of state, President Mary McAleese. It was a meeting of equals, a coming together of the representatives of two neighboring nations in mutual respect, a moment of which the people of Ireland can rightly be proud.

    To read Shaun Connolly’s story, go here.

    ———

    OBAMA’S VISIT TO IRELAND

    The Irish Times played the story the way it plays many of its centerpiece stories: with one main photo, one headline and one deckhead. The photos fascinated me, because I was trying to wrap my mind around the glass-looking partition thing from which Obama delivered his speech.

    What the Irish Times front didn’t show, though, but did show on its website:

    That photo was uncredited on the site. To see that photo (and to read the story by Stephen Collins and Mark Hennessy), go here.

    That Guinness moment did make it on the Irish Examiner front, though:

    Similarly to the front featuring Queen Elizabeth II, the importance of this event was summed up in the main copy block under the photos:

    The visits of US presidents emphasise the importance of what is one of this country’s major resources — Irish descendants in the United States and, indeed, Irish descendants scattered throughout the world. We need to cultivate those resources wherever possible.

    To read Paul O’Brien’s story, go here.

    ———

    UPDATE

    The Queen did NOT have a Guinness. Read about it here.

    INFOGRAPHIC: Pro-wrestling deaths compared

    Posted on by
    4

    Last week, WWE wrestler “Macho Man” Randy Savage died in a car crash in Florida. He was 58.

    When Savage’s death was announced on Friday, there was speculation that he might have suffered a heart attack before crashing his car. As of now, there’s been no confirmation of that speculation. But if Macho Man did die of heart-related conditions, he would not be alone when compared to his fellow wrestlers who have also died before turning 65.

    I conducted a brief, non-exhaustive survey of the wrestling stars to die in the last 20 years before reaching their 65th birthdays. This includes both men and women who were in WWF/WWE or WCW. I culled my list from a larger list, and then looked up individual wrestlers. I left off Terry Garvin because there’s speculation on his birth year. (He does have a really cool surname, though).

    Of that group, a good number of these deaths were heart- or drug-related, if not both. Additionally, there were two suicides.

    Some things to point out:

    • Andre the Giant was a huge guy, so it’s understandable that he’d have heart issues.
    • Yokozuna and Earthquake were also huge guys, so it’s understandable that they’d have general health issues.
    • Dino Bravo was rumored to have been murdered because of mob connections.
    • Owen Hart died during a WWE performance.

    If looking purely at this list, it would seem that “Macho Man” Randy Savage is one of the older wrestling stars to die. In this list, he’s second only to Gorilla Monsoon.

    Again, this list does not include every wrestler, and is not meant to imply that Gorilla Monsoon and Randy Savage were the oldest former wrestlers at the times of their deaths. It does succeed in showing, though, that in dying at 58, Savage outlived some of his colleagues by at least 10 years. In the grand scheme of things, 58 would be considered a young age. But in pro-wrestling, where these guys put their bodies through all sorts of physical activity, Savage was almost elderly.

    ———
    RELATED

    5 best crazy Macho Man Randy Savage videos on YouTube

    How the Florida Times-Union covered historic victory

    Posted on by
    1

    This past week, the people of Jacksonville, Fla., elected its first black mayor in the history of the city. Democrat Alvin Brown beat Republican Mike Hogan in a runoff on May 17. The runoff followed the March election in which the two garnered the most votes.

    Many of my former colleagues at The Florida Times-Union did great work this week. Here’s some — but not all — of that work.

    By the time Wednesday’s paper went to bed, the two were 603 votes apart. Brown photo shot by Bruce Lipsky, Hogan shot by Bob Self. But by Wednesday afternoon…

    …Alvin Brown was declared the victor. The victory shot from Thursday’s paper by Don Burk.

    Reporter Matt Galnor explained the historic win’s statistics and graphic artist Annie Liao made this graphic showing the precinct-by-precinct results. Click for a larger view.

    Annie Liao infographic Jacksonville mayor's race precincts

    And Sunday, Tim Gibbons wrote a piece analyzing Alvin Brown’s campaign and how he won.

    Jacksonville was my home for four and a half years, and because of the time I spent there with such great friends and colleagues, I will always think of Jacksonville as one of my homes. Thus, even though I no longer live there, this mayoral race was pretty interesting to me. And it reminded me of a few graphics I did that can now be updated.

    In January 2009, I researched and put together this graphic in time for Obama’s inauguration. This timeline-chart hybrid shows which party was in control of the presidency, U.S. Senate and House, Florida Governorship, Senate and House, and the Jacksonville mayor’s office and city council from 1960 to 2009.

    A month later, I researched and put together this graphic showing how long it took for black men and women to be elected into various political offices, from the White House down to Jacksonville positions. Jacksonville’s first black city council members post-Reconstruction were Sallye Mathis, Mary Singleton and Earl Johnson. Nat Glover became the first black sheriff in 1995. He ran for mayor in 2003, but lost to John Peyton. Jackie Brown, a black woman, ran for mayor in 2007, but also lost to Peyton. She died shortly after the election.

    I’m looking forward to the possible graphics that can come from this election. Between Brown’s victory, Peyton’s administration coming to an end and the shift of influence in the city, there will be no shortage of graphics.

    ———

    UPDATE

    Denise M. Reagan, AME for Visuals at The Florida Times-Union, writes:

    The blogs on election night and all the next day during the count of provisional and absentee ballots were well done and featured a lot of participation from the community.

    Additionally, on Monday, #AlvinBrownVictorySongs was a hashtag on Twitter for — you guessed it — potential victory songs for Alvin Brown.