RSS feed for InstantSpot site Dave's Blog

Major League Baseball Caps With Gang Colors

Fri, 24 Aug 2007 15:13:29 GMT

NEW YORK — Official Major League Baseball caps blatantly featuring colors and symbols for some of America's deadliest street gangs are turning up on store shelves in Harlem.

Outraged local activists charge that New Era, the caps' manufacturer, and the New York Yankees — whose famous interlocking NY cap features a choice of a red and black bandanna design for the Bloods, blue and gray for the Crips and a gold crown for the Latin Kings — and Major League Baseball are deliberately marketing to gang members and wannabes.

"Companies involved should not profit from the promotion of gang affiliation, which leads only to gang violence," the activists, who call themselves the Coalition to Protect Our Children, said in a statement. The coalition is concerned that unsuspecting kids could buy one of the hats, wear it in the wrong turf and then be targeted for attack.

The group marched Thursday in East Harlem to try to pressure local shops into pulling the caps from their shelves. One store operator agreed to do so, MyFOXNY.com reported.

Meanwhile, an MLB official claimed the league was not aware that the designs were gang-related.

"Major League Baseball … is very concerned about the issue," said Silvia Alvarez, the league's director of multicultural and charitable communications, in a statement. She indicated that MLB would encourage and support the pulling of these caps from stores.

The Coalition to Protect our Children said the group would continue its efforts to stop the sale of caps with gang colors and symbols and plans to hold gang-awaren

Britney gets topless for photo shoot, but is no-show for interview

Sun, 19 Aug 2007 01:54:41 GMT

The cover of the September issue of Allure magazine features Britney Spears posed provocatively in jeans and dark brown wig, her bare breasts covered by her arms. There are two similar shots inside the mag. She very cooperatively posed for the shots in April. When it came to sitting for the interview she had also agreed to, that became a much different matter.

“Britney showed up for Allure’s cover shoot on time and ready to work,” editor-in-chief Linda Wells wrote in an a letter for the issue, on newsstands Tuesday.

“She was entirely unself-conscious: She took off her wig and then stripped down to the waist, for no apparent reason, before sitting for hair and makeup,” Wells said. “She was agreeable and cooperative on the shoot and left at the end of the day, followed by a trail of paparazzi.”

As for the interview that was to follow, the 25-year-old Spears missed four appointments with Allure interviewer Judith Newman, Wells said.

At one point, Spears put off the chat because she was “delayed by important work in the recording studio,” Newman wrote. But, she added, “The paparazzi found her a few hours later at a salon, getting her nails done.” .

What do you do when you have no profile to accompany some alluring photographs? Newman wrote a first-person essay about her experience trying to track down Spears.

“Britney has long lost her role-model status,” Wells commented. “That dream of a comeback seems to occupy an ever-more-distant speck on the horizon.”

NHL All Star Game Starting Lineup

Wed, 10 Jan 2007 05:51:12 GMT

The NHL All Star Game will be played Jan. 24th 2007 in the American Airlines Center in Dallas TX. The starting lineup was release today and no Rory Fitzpatrick didn't make it. The remainder of the rosters will be released on Jan. 13th. The starting line ups are the following:

Western Conference

Joe Sakic #19 Colorado Avalanche Center

Jonathan Cheechoo #14 San Jose Sharks Right Wing

Joe Thornton #19 San Jose Sharks Center

Niklas Lidstrom #5 Detroit Red Wings Defense

Scott Niedermayer #27 Anahein Ducks

Roberto Luongo #1 Vancouver Canucks Goalie

Eastern Conference

Daniel Briere #48 Buffalo Sabres Center

Brian Campbell #51 Buffalo Sabres Defense

Ryan Miller #30 Buffalo Sabres Goalie

Sidney Crosby #87 Pittsburgh Penguins Center

Alexander Ovechkin #8 Washington Capitals Left Wing

Sheldon Souray #44 Montreal Canadiens Defense