HOT: We Will Flock You
Not only was Queen’s Freddie Mercury arguably the greatest Rock & Roll frontman of all time, he’s also (mostly posthumously) been one of the most effective crusaders for AIDS awareness. On what would have been the singer’s 66th birthday (Sept. 5), the makers of Angry Birds decided to honor his legacy by turning him into an Angry Birds character. I know! My hackles went up immediately, too. But it’s actually a bit of cheeky brilliance befitting Mercury’s own — the one-off Freddie Birdcury (not actual name) is part of the annual “Freddie for a Day” charity/prank, for which people get friends to sponsor them for dressing like Freddie on the vocalist’s birthday. The money raised from special T-shirts with the image goes to a charity set up by Mercury’s former bandmates that has raised millions for AIDS organizations worldwide.
WARM: Oscars Address Shortcomings
That awkward moment when an Oscar category only has two nominees happened at last year’s Academy Awards when the Best Original Song category, due to some weird algorithm probably thought up by drunk, old movie studio execs as a joke, only featured two nominees —The Muppets vs. Rio (the Muppets won; see the winning tune below). That will never happen again now that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced it has (soberly) devised a new formula that ensures at least five nominees. Smart move, but I found the “Minimum one Randy Newman song per year” amendment unnecessarily devious.
COLD: It’s a Long Day for the Cops if She’s Gonna Rock ’n’ Roll
An apparently hardcore AC/DC fanatic was warned once, then arrested three times for repeatedly blasting the Aussie classic rockers’ “Highway to Hell” and other tunes. Oh, and the woman’s interactions with local authorities in New Hamprshire all occurred within about a 26-hour time period. We’re sure she was working the “But that’s my jaaamm!” defense when cops first showed up and warned her; she continued her one-dimensional DJ set even after being arrested twice for it throughout the very long day. Answering the unasked question “What happens when one is deprived of AC/DC’s crucial rock-ness at an appropriate volume?” — the woman was arrested again within 24 hours, not for rockin’ out too hard, but for hurling a frying pan at her nephew during an argument.
