Friday, July 26, 2013

Rolling Stone: Bomber as a Rock Star?


Bomber as Rock Star? Rolling Stone cover outrage
In this magazine cover image released by Wenner Media, Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev appears on the cover.
 
NEW YORK (AP) — Sultry eyes burn into the camera lens from behind tousled curls. A scruff of sexy beard and loose T-shirt are bathed in soft, yellow light.
 
The close-up of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on the cover of Rolling Stone hitting shelves Friday looks more like a young Bob Dylan or Jim Morrison than the 19-year-old who pleaded not guilty a little more than a week ago in the Boston Marathon bombing, his arm in a cast and his face swollen in cour
 
Has the magazine, with its roundly condemned cover, offered the world its first rock star of an alleged Islamic terrorist?
 
The same image of Tsarnaev was widely circulated and used by newspapers and magazines before, but in this context it took on new criticism and accusations that Rolling Stone turned the bombing defendant into something more appealing.
"I can't think of another instance in which one has glamorized the image of an alleged terrorist. This is the image of a rock star. This is the image of someone who is admired, of someone who has a fan base, of someone we are critiquing as art," said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, a communications professor and the director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania.
Public outrage was swift, including hard words from the Boston mayor, bombing survivors and the governor of Massachusetts. At least five retailers with strong New England ties — CVS, Tedeschi Food Stores and the grocery chain the Roche Bros. — said they would not sell the issue that features an in-depth look into how a charming, well-liked teen took a dark turn toward radical Islam. Stop & Shop and Walgreens followed suit.
Tsarnaev is not referred to as Tsarnaev in the article. The magazine uses his playful diminutive instead in a headline: "Jahar's World." With cover teasers for other stories on Willie Nelson, Jay-Z and Robin Thicke, it declares for the Tsarnaev story: "The Bomber. How a Popular, Promising Student was Failed by His Family, Fell Into Radical Islam and Became a Monster."
Rolling Stone did not address whether the photo was edited or filtered in any way in a brief statement offering condolences to bombing survivors and the loved ones of the dead.
"The fact that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is young, and in the same age group as many of our readers, makes it all the more important for us to examine the complexities of this issue and gain a more complete understanding of how a tragedy like this happens," the statement said.
That's little consolation for James "Bim" Costello, 30, of Malden, Mass., who needed pig skin grafts on most of his right arm and right leg after the bombing. His body was pebbled with shrapnel, including nails he pulled out of his stomach himself. Three of his close friends lost legs that day and others suffered serious burns and shrapnel injuries.
"I think whoever wrote the article should have their legs blown off by someone," struggle through treatment "and then see who they would choose to put on the cover."
The accompanying story, he said, "just seems like a cry for attention" from Rolling Stone.
The transit police officer who was shot during a showdown with Tsarnaev and his older brother said he hoped the cover didn't glorify the surviving suspect in readers' eyes.
"They could've picked anybody else," Officer Richard Donohue told NBC's "Today" show on Thursday. "There's a number of people they could have picked for an arts and entertainment magazine than an alleged bomber."
Lauren Gabler had finished her fourth Boston Marathon and was two blocks from the finish line explosions that April day. At first she thought the Rolling Stone photo, released on the magazine's website and Facebook page, was of a model or a rock star.
"All of a sudden you realize that's the Boston bomber," said Gabler, who lives in the Washington, D.C., area. "The cover almost tricks you into what you're looking at. I haven't read the article yet, and I know it will probably be quite in-depth, but my initial reaction is that the photo that's being used almost makes him look like a good guy."
Rolling Stone said the cover story was part of its "long-standing commitment to serious and thoughtful coverage of the most important political and cultural issues of our day." And the magazine has had plenty of covers featuring people outside the realm of entertainment, from President Obama to Charles Manson.
Putting criminals and alleged criminals on the covers of major magazines is justified if they are major news figures, said Samir Husni, a journalism professor who heads the Magazine Innovation Center at the University of Mississippi. It's digitally manipulating a photo that never is, said Husni, reached by phone on vacation in his native Lebanon.
"They'll probably regret it later," he said of Rolling Stone's handling of its cover. "Even if it wasn't doctored it's going to bring those negative reactions."
Hundreds of Facebook and Twitter commenters condemned the magazine. Many cursed. Others expressed sadness and still more vowed never to read or purchase the magazine again.
Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino spoke for them in a letter he dashed off to Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner accusing the magazine of offering Tsarnaev "celebrity treatment" and calling the cover "ill-conceived, at best," in that it supports the "terrible message that destruction gains fame for killers and their 'causes.'"
The letter goes on to call the cover an obvious marketing strategy and concludes: "The survivors of the Boston attacks deserve Rolling Stone cover stories, though I no longer feel that Rolling Stone deserves them."
What does the controversy say about the culture today? It's a culture that has already produced an online fandom for the attractive young bombing suspect, including young girls calling him "hot" and promising to help clear his name. At his hearing last week, a dozen or so girls wore T-shirts and stickers bearing his face.
Jamieson had this to say on that score:
"If you took that picture and you walked into an audience three months before the bombing and you said, 'Here, this is a cover of Rolling Stone,' what would people say? They'd say, 'Ah, a new artist emerges on the national stage and Rolling Stone is doing a cover. What is his name? Well I guess it's Bomber.'"
Associated Press writers Cara Rubinsky, Steve LeBlanc and Bridget Murphy contributed to this report from Boston. David R. Martin contributed from New York.

 
 
 
 

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Fatal Shooting of 66 Year Old Woman

Neighbors shocked at fatal shooting of 66-year-old woman

Wednesday, July 24, 2013 | Posted: 3:22 p.m. Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Photo of Judy Salamon courtesy of Facebook

An elderly woman was shot and killed while driving through East Oakland only blocks from her home Wednesday afternoon has been identified by neighbors as 66-year-old Judy Salamon.

Neighbors in East Oakland’s Maxwell Park neighborhood said Salamon was known as the pet nanny, a professional dog walker who was a recognizable figure in the neighborhood.

"She walks her dogs up and down the street. We usually see her," area resident Sean Johnson told KTVU.

Residents of Maxwell Park can't believe the woman they saw everyday was the target of a gunman who opened fire on her green Subaru as she drove up the 2400 block of Fern Street at around 1:30 p.m.

Salamon's car slid backwards and crashed into a parked vehicle after she was fatally shot.

Officers arriving at the scene were unable to locate any suspects. No arrests had been made in the case.

"At this time we don't know if it's one or several suspects," said Oakland Police spokesperson Johnna Watson.

Police said glass beer bottles found at the scene may be useful as evidence to either identify potential suspects or witnesses. The shooting took place next to a cemetery where illegal dumping is prevalent. Multiple cameras in the area may have caught what happened.

Police said they can't speculate about motive, but neighbors told KTVU they can't imagine Salamon's death was anything but a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"Well, this is Oakland. You know how our murder rate this year. But it's just scary that it's in such close proximity," said Johnson.

On Salamon's front door, police left a note from police letting folks know that a tan chihuahua as well as other animals have been removed from the now-empty home.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to call Oakland police at (510) 238-3821. Those who wish to remain anonymous may call (510) 773-2508.



Monday, July 8, 2013

2013 Fall TV Line Up.....

 
America's Next Top Model: Cycle 20 8/2/2013
Get Ready Girls & Boys
 
 
 
Arrow 10/2/2013
 
 
 
Beauty & The Beast 10/7/2013
 
 
 
The Originals  10/15/2013
 
 
 
Reign 10/10/2013
 
 
 
SUPERnatural 10/15/2013
 
 
 
The Carrie Diaries 10/25/2013
 
 
 
The Vampire Diaries 10/25/2013

Monday, July 1, 2013

Hot Toys MMS188 The Dark Knight Rises: 1/6th scale Selina Kyle / Catwoman Collectible Figure

Hot Toys MMS188 The Dark Knight Rises: 1/6th scale Selina Kyle / Catwoman Collectible Figure Monday, July 1, 2013
 
 
Hot Toys is proud to present the highly anticipated 1/6thscale Selina Kyle/ Catwoman Collectible Figure from the movie The Dark Knight Rises.
 
 
  The Collectible Figure is specially crafted based on the image of Anne Hathaway as the prominent character Selina Kyle/ Catwoman, highlighting the movie-accurate head sculpt, hair implantation, highly detailed costume and accessories.
 
 
 
The 1/6th scale Selina Kyle / Catwoman Collectible Figure specially features:
  •          Authentic and detailed fully realized likeness of Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle / Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises movie. 
  •     Newly developed head sculpt with eye mask and movie-accurate make-up
  •           Real fabric hair implantation in long brown straight hair
  • Approximately 28cm tall
  • TrueType body with over 28 points of articulations
  • 7 pieces of interchangeable gloved palms including:
  • 1 pair of relaxed palms
  • 1 pair of fists
  • 1 pair for riding Bat-pod
  •   1 right palm for holding pistol
  • Each piece of head sculpt is specially hand-painted
 
 
Costume:
  •           1 set of one-piece black patterned jumpsuit with belt
  •   1 pair of black high-heel boots
 
 
Weapon:         
  •  1 pistol
 
Accessories:
  •             1 pair of googles
  •             Figure stand with patterns of water drops, with Selina Kyle/ Catwoman name plate and the displays the movie logo