Ever needed to deactivate your Facebook account, take a break from Twitter, or forget about Instagram entirely? Social media and the sometimes shallow feel of the Internet can be a real struggle for highly sensitive persons. Anxiety, depression, and loneliness can be triggered by the digital world. On this episode Michelle and The Captain discuss what all of this means for HSPs, and what people can do to make their time online a more positive experience.
Sydney racegoers will have to wait until The Championships to see champion sprinter Redzel in the flesh but trainer Peter Snowden is hoping he can establish a dominance that lasts at least a couple more years.
The Everest hero is a five-year-old and few would argue that he was at the top of his game by the end of 2017 with six wins on end including the inaugural running of the world's richest turf race at Royal Randwick plus the Group 1 Darley Classic.
Snowden said following Redzel's impressive barrier trial win at Rosehill on Monday that there's no reason he can't emulate Chautauqua's longevity.
Chautauqua is now seven and really began his reign as an autumn four-year-old when he claimed the first of his unprecedented three straight Group 1 TJ Smith Stakes (1200m).
“I think he’s a touch better this time, maybe that’s wishful thinking. He’s always been push button for the last 12 months.
Redzel will make his one and only Sydney appearance this Autumn in the $2.5m TJ Smith Stakes at Randwick on April 7 where he'll look to assume Chautauqua's crown.
Snowden said the gelding is on target for his first-up run in the Black Caviar Lightning (1000m) in Melbourne on Saturday week.
In his first public hitout this year, two weeks earlier, Redzel finished behind Winx in seventh place but it was a different story this time around.
With his blinkers on in his second trial, Redzel assumed the lead early on under Kerrin McEvoy in the 1000m gallop and burst away to win by three lengths, running 58.20 for the trip.
"The race is 12 days away and for Group 1s you need to be really prepared. You need them fit enough to run 1200m to win at that level over 1000m,’’ he said.
"He's had a couple of gallops since that first trial and his work last Thursday morning was very good so I was confident he would trial like that.
Snowden said Redzel could have a second run in Melbourne in the Group 1 William Reid Stakes in March as a final lead up to the TJ.
The first few strokes. Two days later and several thousand strokes more the Cul Mor would arrive 60 miles across Scotland on the east coast at Inverness.
I know that War Pigs was the talk of the Internet yesterday, but sometimes it takes me more than a millisecond to process reality. Or even fake realities masquerading as flash-sideways. You know what I mean, even if you pretend you don't. So if you haven't yet clicked on the site for War Pigs and seen what's what and what's not what, let me break it down for you: Four suburban dads go into North Korea to rescue their kidnapped children back from Kim Jong-Il. Those dads are Pvt. William H. Macy, Capt. John Travolta, Sgt. Brad Garrett, Lt. Cuba Gooding, Jr., and Lloyd from Entourage as North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il. I mentioned it's a comedy, right? Here's the trailer: The mastermind behind War Pigs is not exactly the producers from Old Dogs and Wild Hogs, but comedian Gil Ozeri, who told me he's been having fun seeing the Internet wonder what it's all about. See this Reddit thread, for example. Plus he thought these recent movies needed to be mashed-up and reimagined in an even more ridiculous premise, adding: "That, and I'd love to see William H. Macy get hit in the nuts a thousand times over two hours....
Dane Cook tells me about his Idol finale gig; full studio version of “Simon Said” available on iTunes
After the unexpected ending of his musical performance on last night's finale of American Idol, Dane Cook told me this morning via email a little bit more about the "before" part of the process, and credited comedian J. Chris Newberg not just for working with him on the song, "Simon Said," but also on how he "certainly rose to the occasion in that behind the scenes insanity." Related: See my post below for the video clip of Dane Cook on Idol and getting interrupted by rejects of Idols past. How was Dane Cook even on Idol, though, you may wonder? Credit another Simon, Idol's creator and executive producer Simon Fuller. "Simon Fuller is a fan of mine for some years, so they just asked me to be a part of it," Cook told me. Internet sleuths may also know that Raquel Houghton, who sang at Cook's HBO taping of "Vicious Circle" when she was dating him back in 2006, made it to Hollywood Week of Idol in season eight last year. Anyhow. Back to Cook, who gently mocked me for suggesting that his Idol performance would be a duet and not a solo act, saying: "As far as collaborating with my buddy Daughtry? Oh come on, Sean don't you know me yet?? When do I ever do what people expect?" Hahaha. If you'd like to hear the full studio...
If you haven't listened to Marc Maron's interview with Carlos Mencia that went online on Monday on Maron's WTF podcast, then you can just skip ahead to today's second part, because it's much more revealing. Maron himself felt that his first chat with Mencia hadn't really uncovered much, so he reached out to Willie Barcena and Steve Trevino, then texted Mencia and said he needed a follow-up discussion. That happened quickly. Their conversation goes for a while, and Mencia's emotional state veers between defensive and contrite. At one point, he even acknowledges that comedians and the comedy world would love nothing more than to hear him apologize. And then much later, at the end of their chat, Mencia indeed apologizes, and tells Maron that he had "never been confronted like this about why I go onstage like this for so long." Mencia said: "I don't want to be that person anymore." He's talking specifically about bumping headliners at comedy clubs. But then he's also talking about being the comedian that everyone thinks is a lying, cheating asshole. It's become a "ridiculous" situation, Mencia said. So his message to people who think he's taking a joke of theirs that they think will take them to the next level? "Call me, and I'll drop it." "I guess I really do want to be perceived as a nice guy." To that end, Mencia...
With Simon Cowell's final season as the judge who matters on American Idol coming to a close last night, I wouldn't have thought that there would be actual comedy to pay attention to, but of course that meant that there was, and let's talk about it. Without any explanation, the show zoomed in on Dane Cook at center stage strumming a guitar and roasting Simon. Sure. Um. OK. As I suggested at the time remotely on Twitter to New York Times reporter Dave Itzkoff, perhaps FOX was rewarding Cook for his loyalty to MySpace by letting him sing — after all, Cook did find his path to fame by making 2.6 million friends on MySpace and clinging to the network long after everyone else jumped to Facebook and Twitter. Lo and behold, later in the Idol finale, it turned out that the show was betting on MySpace for its 10th season. I guess I wasn't surprised that Cook would be singing on live network TV — he had told me about wanting to pursue a music career three years ago, although I would have figured that, given his friendship with past Idol finalist Daughtry, that he would have showed up on the finale with Chris Daughtry for a duet instead of as a solo act. That wasn't the news that came out of Dane Cook's appearance, however. Roll the clip!...
Sub-Saharan Africa has seen widespread economic growth since 1995. But increased agricultural productivity is needed to translate that growth into poverty reduction.