The sad reality around here is this: amazing stories pile up and we just don’t have room for them. Of course, if we did a six-hour show every day, then we would. (P.S. That's not happening. Don't ask.) The above video is a response from the city of Grand Rapids, Michigan, to Newsweek for placing their town on a list of "America's Dying Cities". Don't look dead to me! Grand Rapids, FTW!
Also, our new segment The Best New Thing in The World Today has become a hotly contested category around the TRMS compound and many totally worthy runners-up just don’t make the cut. So in an attempt to honor the underdogs, the overlooked, and bizarre, we bring you: The Friday Awesome.
It’s all about the Benjamins. Actually, it’s all about illustrating the Benjamins in an eccentric manner often contrary to the principles of exchangeable currency.
Die, Rinderpest, die! All the cows in the house? Throw your hooves in the air! Woot!
Let there be cool Tony-Stark-as-Iron-Man-style lantern medallions.
Hubert Humphrey’s 100th Birthday. This is what a liberal looks like. Respect!
Tampa Bay Rays fan ejected for wearing a T-shirt with a message two-thirds of America agree with.
Good news? Man builds airplane in his garage. Bad news? The airplane is bigger than his garage.
"There's no meth heads or makers around here, you just gotta mess with the mouse racers."
Feel free to post your own candidates for The Friday Awesome below.
Leave a Comment:
AWESOME: Rep Senfronia Thompson on the floor of the Texas House Thursday:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKf-6WiBq_Q&feature=player_embedded#at=148
Bravo, Mrs. T!
"... In a session in which the House 'has spent 30 to 40 percent of its time kicking the reproductive organs of women down the road,' Thompson took issue with lobbyists using a picture of a breast in calling attention to legislation."
25 yrs after winning the slam dunk championship, Spud Webb still has ups:
http://espn.go.com/espn/page2/index?id=6593009
And, when is TRMS going to get on the story of Rep. Aaron Schrock's manly-man abs, on the June cover of Men's Health magazine?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/reliable-source/post/rep-aaron-schock-reveals-abs-on-mens-health-cover-photos--but-how-will-it-play-in-peoria/2011/05/09/AFijOLcG_blog.html
Thank you so much for posting our video!! I got to be there with guitar in hands, and it was such a blast. Grand Rapids is getting to be a wonderful city lately. The public schools have struggled for years and now are taking more hits with Snyders plans. We were a little worried that he would (he still could) decide that we were gonna be the next Benton Harbor. Videos like this help show off our diversity and commitment to the arts here in GR, as well as our ability to keep our small local businesses alive despite the economy.
As a Grand Rapidian now living in Chicago I always look forward to coming home. I just love the ArtPrize contest which is probably one of the best and hottest art events in the world. With the Meijer Gardens and the Medical Mile to name a few, I can not fathom how Newsweek listed GR as a dying town.
Go Whitecaps!
kelslby, thank you and your friends so much for this wonderful video. BEST THING I HAVE SEEN IN YEARS!
Grand Rapids looks good to me!
Wonderful, people .... just wonderful.
Grand Rapids once two gay square dance clubs. Now, sadly, it has only one. And it is also the home of Amway (actually Amway is in Ada, but close enough).
Way Cool!
It's not new; you've undoubtedly seen it. But it makes me smile every time:
Wow, I've only heard sad/bad things about Grand Rapids... who knew it was so beautiful. Adding that to the drive East and I'll happily spend my money in a city that could do something this cool.
Great vid, guys.
Horse herpes outbreak forces rodeo queens to ride stick ponies:
Let's try this again.
Horse herpes outbreak forces rodeo queens to ride stick ponies:
www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=15716018
That headline alone is full of enough awesome to make me giggle like a 12 year old.
Bet theres a MAN behind that idea!
No horses?
Horses???
We don't need no freakin Horses!!
Well, run thier youthy selves around the arena a few times...Give them some exercise and get a million hits on the 'net!!
You guys seriously need to cover Aaron Fotheringham. He is an Extreme Sports athlete but doesn't use a skateboard or BMX bike... he uses his wheelchair. He's been around for a while but anyone who hasn't seen him in action needs to see that being in a wheelchair doesn't have to limit someone.
Do you have more information on Aaron Fotheringham? I work with the Utah Independent Living Center and we have a sports group and sadly do not talk enough about athletes with disabilities. Thanks!
Gov. Rick Perry for President? Read my lips! No new Texans!
We're Bushed!
No new Texans! We should just let them secede-then again they're trying to take back NM with our guv Suzy Martinez appointing many TX jerks to positions (as if we don't have qualified education,etc..) she also rolled back enviro rules....there's a saying in TX-all hat & no cattle-that about fits MOST folks in that state of disarray! ;)
No good has come out of Texas in my lifetime.
Uhm...Cute. Funny. Clever, even. But, I think the fact that they were able to do this in response to a magazine article, kinda' proves the point. :/
Don't get me wrong; it's still friggin' awesome. :)
Archeologists raise Blackbeard's ship anchor:
"the area around the pile has yielded animal bones that give evidence of the pirates' fare, including some of the cheapest and least appealing cuts of beef."
Argh, it's a pirate's life for me!
I'm with the, "let's try again." Don't know why the link didn't work...but it a google search for, "happy people dancing on planet earth," will lead you there. I'll try once more: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080722.html
Memorial Day weekend - a Lantern Floating ceremony for those who have passed:
http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/14726720/13th-annual-lantern-floating-ceremony-this-memorial-day
(I think grief is something much overlooked, denied and repressed in our society. This is one culture's way of expressing it.)
You can read about Hubert Humphrey in Walter Mondale's new biography "The Good Fight". I think if Miss Maddow considers herself the real "wonk", then she must read Mondale's book. It's only about $6 on Amazon.
Mondale was also a great human being, a great American, and a great Democrat who was severely punished for telling Americans the truth, with America just beginning its surge in budget problems in 1984, he couldn't promise not to raise taxes. One could have foreseen in 1984 all the problems America would have between then and 2011, when Americans had decided a la Nicholson that they "couldn't handle the truth". Rachel might invite Mondale on to give some analysis like she does Rendell. Mondale still has a sharp and active mind. Mondale never got his just due from this country, and that is extremely sad, but it's not Mondale's mistake, it was short-sighted Americans who wanted their cake and eat it too.
Oberlin College released an awesome parody of Rebecca Black's "Friday" today featuring the college president & other administrators.
Thanks, Kent, for posting these links and the video. Also, The Best New Thing in The World Today is quickly becoming one of my favorite segments on the show.
mine too :)
Hmmm! I'm from the Grand Rapids area, and had been groaning at this "lip dub" thing, believing it to be terminally lame and stooopid as hell.
But....if Rachel says it's awesome and cool, then (as Boehner would say) so be it.
*shrug* Don't mind me, I think "Art Prize" is dumb, too. :\
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xY7f3hEueQ
Take off on the 'Pure Michigan' tourist ads...just watch it.
Photo or painting?
it's a photo, but sooo reminds me of a bugs cartoon!
That video was simply amazing. It is so awesome to see an entire city get together and do something like this.
Truly....truly inspiring. It gives me hope for those good people. They will prevail.
That was awesome Grand Rapids. Very well done!!
To Miss Maddows: Of course, if we did a six-hour show every day, then we would. (P.S. That's not happening. Don't ask.) <---- A lib who refuses to work a 6 hour day much less a regular 8 hour one, call me shocked!!
i bet you they put in a good 8 hours or more. by rachel's standards, doing a 6 hour show everyday would put just research at about a 15 hour work day.
15 hours of research plus a 6 hour show, would make a 21 hour work day.
i don't blame them for not even thinking about it.
So by your math they take roughly 2.5 hours of research per hour of show time. That means currently she works 3.5 hours a day?
-
I don't doubt that her crew works some long and hard hours, but she certainly doesn't seem to want to.
ok wally, you're totally right. you keep thinking that...and what was i thinking?
according to reports from 2008, she was working 10+ hours a day.
let's just be honest and call you stupid instead: one, for talking down to Ms Maddow as arrogant and misogynistic conservatives are wont to do, and two, for believing that she's one of your Fox Noozemodels who just show up, go thru make-up and wardrobe, and then read lines that someone else wrote.
Right on, Tomm.
Your reference to the FOX noozemodels (heehee) instantly popped this classic into my head:
Dirty Laundry by Don Henley.
Perhaps this is what Wally is looking for in his news reports? Certainly not that nasty ole' lesbian "Miss Maddows" who spews naught but "truthiness".
Carrie: please site said reports? I took her saying she was not going to work 6 hours a day straight from her. Was she being decietful?
Tomm: Resulting to name calling, really? What a mature way to get your point across, your professors must be proud. And by the way I am a Libertarian, not a conservative. I believe FOX news is just as biased and Ms. Maddows is.
Cyncerity: I had no idea Ms. Maddows was a 'nasty ole' lesbian. And even if I did, what would that have to do with her work ethic? I wrote what I did based on what she said not who she sleeps with. Perhaps it is you who has the problem with her sexuality?
wally, why don't you see who actually wrote this blog - don't get me wrong, this is the maddow blog, but the blogs that are posted are from various people. kent jones, wrote this piece - so technically rachel didn't say it.
rachel's contract with msnbc is for a one hour show. when she first signed on, she also was doing a 2 hour radio show.
go ahead and read
http://www.gazettenet.com/story/199040?SESS5bd48b21875116cd73d694e5d5bd4d45=gnews
ps, she was putting those hours in prior to her msnbc show, but when she started, and i think for like a year, she did not only that schedule, but also her 9-10pm show.
calling her out in not wanting to work? HA! she chooses to work hard, because it makes the difference.
a 6 hour show, is HUGE for anyone to do - and to do it on current politics - it would take out the appeal of bringing to light stuff that no one is talking about.
LOL @ Wally....I was being sarcastic, dude. I was merely poking fun at your issue with her "work ethic" as you say. Just because she's only on-air for an hour does not equate to a 3.5 hr work day. I would be willing to bet that she is at work more than you or I are.
And how hypocritical it would be for me to have a problem with her sexuality, when you consider that I bat for the same team that she does. Again, I was merely being facetious.
If @Wally believes Maddow only works during the hour she is on air, then he also likely believes teachers only work when they are in the classroom, lawyers only work when they are in court, and preachers only work on Sunday mornings for an hour or two.
I would put Maddow's work ethic up to his any day of the week.