Via Andrew Alderson of The New Zealand Herald comes this quote from an America’s Cup 2013 competitor:
“I hope like hell that whoever survives this thing and wins it changes the boat class to anything safer than these God-forsaken death traps.”
That’s not a vote of confidence, Larry Ellison.
Larry Ellison giving the finger to the world with one hand whilst steering his yacht with the other:
Dont click to expand
You can see a little bit of the port hull and also the places where it ripped away:
“Hauling out Artemis AC72“ by Turtle Moon World
From the Newcastle Herald:
‘Nathan told me [the turn] didn’t seem any different to any other occasion,’’ Mr Outteridge said.
‘‘The bow dug in a little bit but he said that’s not unusual.
‘‘The next thing he heard a cracking noise and the boat went on its side.
‘‘Before it capsized it snapped in half, Nathan described it as folding like a taco shell.’’
And:
“A quick head count revealed one member of the crew was missing – Andrew Simpson – triggering a desperate search.
The British two-time Olympic gold medallist was trapped underwater, wedged underneath ‘‘a few tonnes’’ of carbon fibre, frantically trying to free himself.
His crew members could see him, fighting for his life and dived beneath the water to try to set him free.
They handed the man they called ‘‘Bart’’ emergency oxygen bottles – which hold about 10 breaths each – in a bid to keep him alive in the hope rescue crews would arrive in time.
I’ll tell you, I don’t know why former Mayor Gavin Newsom trying to cut a sweetheart deal with Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison in exchange for being made Honorable, Grand Exalted Ambassador at Large for the America’s Cup 2013 isn’t considered a form of bribery, but there you go.
Anyway, the upshot is that Sting will have a place to perform his greatest hits in the 415 on June 2nd, 2013. Ticks go on sale February 22nd. Deets below.
Uh, how many motor yachts are going to putt-putt across the Atlantic and through the Panama canal to see a staged race of overly-large catamarans and how much money will the Eurotrash spend in town while they’re here? Not as many/much as “projected,” that’s for sure. Presenting your wasteful (and yet somehow “sustainable”) America’s Cup 34:
Click to expand
All the deets, after the jump.
Sting: Back To Bass Tour Extends Through 2013
NEW NORTH AMERICAN & EUROPEAN DATES ANNOUNCED
Performing His Most Celebrated Hits, Stripped Down With A 5-Piece Band
Let’s see here, remember back when when it took three months for San Francisco Chronicle writer CW Nevius to pull a 180 on the original America’s Cup deal? Leave us review:
CW Nevius, the bleating sheep of San Francisco’s Animal Farm, seems to have had a change of heart about Larry Ellison’s one and only offer for us to pay for his little boat party in a few years.
You see, back in the day, a way back in September 2010, Chuckles thought the idea of San Francisco losing nine figures for the right to host the next America’s Cup, the concept called the “Southern Waterfront” proposal, was:
“…a wonderful opportunity without a downside.”
But now, less than three months later, the very same exact proposal has become:
“…an irresponsible giveaway and bad for San Francisco.”
Remember that? (You see, at the time The Neve was trying to frame in high relief the differences between two different proposals so that was his technique. Either he’s stupid or he thinks his readers are stupid. Or both.)
Anyway, since then, the AC13 people took Chuckie on a boat ride for him to witness a staged catamaran crash near the Marina so then he became fully “on board” with this venture. Let’s call him cheerleader number one for this aquatic boondoggle.
Here’s his latest position. I don’t know. The Chuckinator is starting to sound conflicted, once again.
Oh, I know, why don’t we just call the whole thing off, why not? It would teach certain people a lesson and we wouldn’t be mortgaging San Francisco’s future to Larry fucking Ellison. Sounds like a win-win to me.
And hey, do you think that CW benefits personally from SF hosting the America’s Cup? I think he does, just as he’s personally benefited from eight(!) Olympiads.
“I would just add this. I covered eight Olympic Games. In nearly every case, there were huge problems with the host cities – bitter feelings, angry denunciations and threats of revenge. But on the day of the Opening Ceremony, all was forgiven.”
Really, all was forgiven? Really? Aren’t the people of Greece, for example, still suffering from the effects of the 1996 Olympics? I think so. Don’t you know that Chuckles?
The Olympics are corruption, simply stated. And America’s Cup is corruption. Same deal.
But at least people actually seem to be interested in the Olympics.
Oh well.
“The animals who inhabit the Manor Farm are mistreated and abused. The animals rebel and take over. Soon, however, the pigs (who represent the party bosses) begin to take special privileges for themselves, e.g. extra food. They enlist the farm’s dogs as enforcers to put down any dissent, and they teach the sheep to speak the party line on demand. At first, this is, “Four legs good, two legs bad”- animals (four legs) are good, humans (exploiters) are bad. As time passes, the Seven Commandments (Animal Farm’s Constitution) undergo subtle changes as the pigs rewrite it to suit their own agenda. When Boxer the horse (symbolizing blue-collar labor, the “workers,”) becomes too old to work, the pigs sell him to the horse butcher, whom they tell the other animals is really the veterinarian. The pigs eventually learn to walk on two legs, thus imitating the animals’ original exploiters, and they teach the sheep to bleat, “Four legs good, two legs better!”
Here it is:
S.F. vote on report big hurdle for America’s Cup
Go ahead, take a look.
Larry Ellison, the Neve’s latest bromance crush:
Click to expand
“Although the turnout… were disappointing, that won’t be the case with the finals when they arrive here in 2013.”
Uh, do you need a copy editor, Neve? (I know of about seven who is on the market as of yesterday, AAMOF.) Anyway, Jesus Tap-Dancing Christ, Nevius, how the frack do you know how the frack the gosh darn AC13 is going to turn out? Do you have a crystal ball? Or maybe you want to give readers the impression that everything’s going to work out? Why?
“At least that’s the expectation. This is supposed to be the America’s Cup that changes everything, from the venue, to the TV coverage, to the tactics of sailing. Barclay says these races will turn conventional wisdom on its head.”
Uh, promoters lie. That’s what promoters do, right? What just happened down in Fun Diego was a fucking disaster and people said, “Heads will roll.” And you know what, they were right. At least one head rolled, anyway, on Thanksgiving Eve 2011. Wasn’t he the CEO ‘n stuff? Do you know about that, Neve? No need to mention that though, is there, huh?
“Usually the fastest boat wins,” he said. “But this will be different because of the bay. The space is so confined and the boats are so fast (the 72-footers may reach 50 mph) there will be a lot of maneuvering. And multihull boats do not maneuver well. That means this will be a lot about sailing.”
Gee, you know, don’t you think that if Americans wanted to watch sailing a lot, then we’d already be doing it? What’s so great about sailing? Obviously, people don’t care to watch sailing so why should they? How will doing that improve their lives? And, uh, there’s no way these boats will go 50 MPH. Remember earlier about the lying, Neve? And isn’t it sort of ridiculous to host the America’s Cup in San Francisco Bay? Whose idea is this?
For those of us who do not have a clew (a nautical joke; a clew is the bottom corner of a sail), television will be the key. There are cameras on the boats, digital lines to mark the path, and real-time clocks to show how many seconds a boat is ahead or behind.
Oh, I get it, “clew!” HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Nevius, you so cray-cray! Hey, why don’t we put cameras on on WNBA players? And digital lines, ooh, how exciting! (Oh, the WNBA already has/had that.) And a “real time” clock too! (Oh, the WNBA already has/had that.) And a scoreboard what tells how far ahead one team is. (Oh, the WNBA already has/had that.) But, oh, nobody wants to watch the WNBA. In that sense, it’s just like sailing. Take a look. They even have the pitchpoling incident that was staged on the bay just for you and the cameras to see, Neve. You realize that that was fake, right Neve? You know, so they could use that scene for their video opening over and over again? Even NASCAR doesn’t stage accidents.
But what you really need to do is see the boats up close. Even with the secrecy surrounding the teams, Barclay said they plan to host a few open houses for the public.
The secrecy is fake, nobody cares. But, oh, they’re going to have open houses? Again, the secrecy is fake, nobody cares. Oh, but you care, Neve? All right. Tell us again, Neve, tell us about your supr sekrt visit to the supr sekrt boat place!
You’ll be able to see what he calls “the little boats,” the 45-footers that raced in San Diego, the “shed” where the 72-footer is being built, and the mammoth 223-foot wing that powered the Oracle trimaran that won the 33rd America’s Cup in Spain. And yes, it is really true that when that wing is fitted to the boat, it reaches up too high to sail under the Golden Gate Bridge.
Think, Neve. You’re talking about a catamaran here. They could put that baby on one hull and slide right under the GGB no problem, why not? Anyway, nobody knows and nobody cares where freaking Larry Ellison last bought his America’s Cup trophy.
It will, all in all, be a mighty and impressive spectacle right here in our bay.
So, that’s your point but you haven’t supported it. In your world, Neve, San Diego was a failure, ergo San Francisco won’t be. Because, because why? Gavin Newsom did a crappy job representing the interests of San Francisco and then, surprise, he’s made honorary poohbah of the whole thing and you think that’s the greatest idea in the world.
Today the Cup preparations are racing downwind, hell-bent for glory. Let’s hope no submerged obstacles pop up.
Why should anybody care, Nevius?
Our Teatro ZinZanni has a new home, but Sarah Duxbury says that some heavy lifting still needs to be done.
No matter, TZ’s cabaret performers were on hand all smiles yesterday at the news conference* in the “50 Broadway” parking lot near the Embarcadero. This location will be ZinZanni’s new home, if everything works out.
(I’ll tell you, I can’t tell the difference betwixt Gavin Newsom running the Newsom Administration and Ed Lee running the Newsom Adminstration, fundamentally. I mean, Ed Lee is not an impetuous asshole, so that means he behaves better, he tends to show up at these kinds of functions with a smaller entourage and less drama. That’s good, I s’pose…)
Oh, there he is, to the right of the gorgeous Martian(?) lady:
Click to expand
See how this will work? The famous European tent they use will go behind the new building:
All the deets after the jump.
And get over to highly-rated ZinZanni (if you can still get tickets, perhaps on a Wednesday or Thursday) before they shut down on the night of December 31, 2011. It really is quite an experience.
* I didn’t stick around for the Bauer’s “Intelligent” Transportation part of the presser. You know, you really need to work hard at sucking to get a Yelp rating this low.** But Bauer’s is well-connected to SFGov, so there you go, there’s your bidness model.
**Even with the work of shill reviewers avec their bogus five-star ratings…
Typical San Francisco infrastructure, by David Yu:
Click to expand
Look for this area to be filled with football-field length yachts soon, you know, for the America’s Cup boat race…
San Francisco Chronicle Urban Design Writer John King was in fine form over the weekend:
“They know how to win a regatta. Soon, we’ll learn if organizers of the 2013 America’s Cup also know how to keep legitimate concerns from becoming full-scale controversies.
If they don’t, a huge project with a rare degree of support in San Francisco could find itself the target of sniping by second-guessers from all sides. The event organizers also could find themselves scrambling for permits as the clock ticks down in a time frame that leaves no room for error.
That’s why it makes sense to make a few concessions early – such as Cup officials clearly stating that they will not seek to build marinas along the downtown waterfront after the conclusion of the summer-long sailing spectacle.”
Is there anyone left in town who thinks that former Mayor Gavin Newsom did a good job negotiating the America’s Cup agreement? Or, at this point, even an average job? Not to my knowledge.
So our Road to AC13 will be full of nails and garbage pails – of that you can be certain. But it’s nice having John King around to mind the store, in’nt?
JK OTJ in SF – The Man in the Trilby Hat:
Via Justin Beck – click to expand
Gaia Bless John King
Apparently, there aren’t enough printing presses available in the Bay Area to keep up with the enormous demand the public has for “The Real Ed Lee – The Untold, Untold, Story.”
(Uh…, moving on.)
Anyway, the upshot is that now you can see the text online in a searchable format. See below.
(Or kick it old-school with Bluoz, your choice.)
Click to expand
“The book goes through the details of how Lee rose through the ranks at City Hall, along the way approving a couple of fraudulent vendors and getting caught up in Willie Brown’s sleaze. It discusses how his campaign is taking credit for other people’s work and ideas. It describes how he promised over an over not to run, then went ahead and did it anyway. It’s got a great picture of him steering a 139-foot yacht with the caption “I’m on a boat.”
(Nice link there, Tim Redmond – I hadn’t made the connection.)
All the deets:
“The Untold, Untold Story” Goes Online - Leland Yee campaign can’t print “The Real Ed Lee” book fast enough for demand
SAN FRANCISCO – The reviews are in and the “The Real Ed Lee: The Untold, Untold Story” is a smash hit!
Has a serious political point, but it’s actually funny, sometimes really funny, and it’s much easier to read than the plodding “Ed-Is-Greater-Than-God” prose of the original…. For once, we have a campaign piece that made me laugh instead of crying. - San Francisco Bay Guardian
OMG, A new best seller to be! – Some guy on the internet
Everyone is talking about it! – SFist
The 55-page parody shows Lee on the cover as downcast, grumpy and triple-chinned. The book recounts dozens of previously published stories detailing everything from the two district attorney investigations into alleged ethics violations by his supporters and alleged cronyism. – San Francisco Chronicle
The 56-page booklet is heavily footnoted with URLs – The Bay Citizen
I totally LOL’ed – The San Francisco Citizen
((*sound of crickets*)) – Interim Mayor Ed Lee
The slim volume oozes sarcasm as it covers the history of Ed Lee’s tenure as mayor, including his promise to not run for a full term and charges of inappropriate campaign donations from contractors. - San Francisco Examiner
This is the first “hit” recipe in political history. - Eric Jaye
Less than three-months hence, Lee’s campaign is beset by multiple criminal investigations into alleged campaign money laundering, ballot tampering and other campaign election violations. – Fog City Journal
[Ed Lee staff] were pretty disgusted by it. – Tony Winnicker
Painstakingly put together to resemble the original propaganda mailer to the smallest detail. The type fonts are identical. The jaunty writing style is mocked all too well. – SF Weekly
The Leland Yee for Mayor campaign has already distributed thousands of “The Real Ed Lee: The Untold, Untold Story” to voters throughout San Francisco, however, the demand for the book has been so great that today Yee’s campaign launched the book online at http://www.lelandyee.com/the-
“We can’t print the books fast enough,” said Jim Stearns, Yee’s campaign manager. “Now that it is online every San Franciscan will have the opportunity to read this accurate account of our interim mayor and be able to compare his tarnished and corruption-filled record to Leland Yee’s 23 years of leadership and experience fighting for our community, especially seniors, students, and the most vulnerable.”
“The Real Ed Lee: The Untold, Untold Story” is a response to a book produced by one Ed Lee’s billionaire IE committees, which falsely glorified the interim mayor and ignored the multiple scandals and ethics violations of his campaign. The highlights of “The Real Ed Lee: The Untold, Untold Story” include Lee becoming interim mayor on false pretenses, his approval of fraudulent contracts, giving “golden parachutes, embracing cronyism, failure to follow ethics laws, illegal campaign contributions, money laundering (well, the first time), voter fraud, and the city’s future if Ed Lee were elected. The book also includes “Willie [Brown] & Rose’s [Pak] ‘No Longer Secret’ Make-A-Mayor Recipe.”
By comparison, Leland Yee has released several detailed plans on job creation, environmental protection, transportation, and schools. Maybe the most important of his plans – “An Independent City Hall” – would clean up City Hall, bring real transparency and accountability, kick out the powerbrokers, and return our local government to the people. To read Yee’s plan, visit http://www.lelandyee.com/
You remember this?
Well, now it’s time to read the whole thing without you having to leave your iPad or whatever.
It’s courtesy of the ever-resourceful Bluoz.
Here’s just one page:
Via Bluoz – click to expand
(Remember that one from former Mayor Gavin Newsom? “You’re not just changing your mind. You’re breaking a promise to these people.” That was just 2.5 months ago. Oh well.)
All right, enjoy!
