Everybody's Linking for the Weekend

Sorry for the lighter writing output this week in terms of posts-it was one of those weeks at work where everything in the outside world just sort of fell by the wayside (in a good way-occasionally you need a good week where work comes first).  However, we'll be back to our regular twice-a-day schedule come next week as we finish up the Top 200 Songs countdown and the 2008 OVP, and start up some new projects potentially by Labor Day.  In the meantime, we have a link roundup to get to!

In Entertainment...

-DailyDot had a "preaching to the choir" moment for me earlier this week when they profiled Steve Harvey, perhaps the most obnoxious celebrity we don't instantly associate with obnoxious celebrities.  Seriously-Harvey has to be one of the worst people in entertainment right now, right up there with Donald Trump.  The article talks about how Jonathan Franzen and Wendy Williams both got lambasted by the media for comments they made, while Harvey's comments and actions, which run-the-gamut from having an all-male audience boo women for not giving their husband enough sex to saying gay men aren't "real men" to saying that men are only be friends with women because they want to have sex with them.  Really, Harvey's 1950's-style attitude is probably part of the reason why Donald Trump can get away with some of the things that he's saying-it feels like it's preaching to a similar choir.

-CBCRadio did an interesting take on the potential death of the one-hit wonder in the wake of Carly Rae Jepsen's success on her sophomore album (seriously-the Twitter gays are going bananas for this thing).  I agree with the idea that we are no longer going to have one-hit wonders, particularly in pop music as radio stations have become annoyingly similar and hyper-gentrified.  Even in the Minneapolis market, where something like Cities 97 (somewhat of an institution in the area) has transitioned to essentially being yet another Katy Perry/Imagine Dragons-style station rather than a network where you're consistently finding newer and lesser-known pop music.  All of this is to say that while I like pop music, I tend to get bored of the same ten songs over-and-over and the modern radio game has me just listening to NPR when I am in the car and scoring new songs on YouTube or perusing blogs to get a taste of music.

-With the US Open starting up on Monday, Nike did something awesome in New York, recreating the iconic street tennis match between Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi.  Both men were there again, along with current tennis stars Serena Williams, Rafael Nadal, Madison Keys, Maria Sharapova (pictured above), and of course Roger Federer.  Click over for some fun photos from the event, which also managed to get John McEnroe to be the umpire.

In Politics...

Gov. Martin O'Malley (D-MD)

-I know that we discussed this a little earlier in the week, but Al Hunt has a piece out discussing how a Biden-Warren primary ticket would not be without precedent (though it would be without precedent in terms of announcing this early in the process).  While we echoed a lot of the ideas in my piece (hint, read mine if you haven't already!), it's interesting to point out that this concept has been floated around a bit before, and was actually executed by then-Gov. Ronald Reagan in 1976 when he chose liberal Sen. Richard Schweiker as his running mate to try and gain points in his close primary race against President Ford.  It's also interesting in hindsight to see Sen. Bob Dole, who had an impressive start to his 1988 presidential campaign, watch his chances at the presidency evaporate by not selecting Gov. Lamar Alexander, a young hotshot at the time, to build momentum headed into New Hampshire.  Dole and Alexander would both pursue the nomination in 1996, with Dole winning it, but they certainly would have had an easier time actually making it to the White House had they been the ticket in 1988.

-There's been a lot of talk this past week about whether or not Carly Fiorina should be included in the debates coming up on CNN, and how she is taking her frustrations out on the RNC rather than exclusively on CNN.  It's an interesting argument, and looking at CNN's rules (where they had a much-longer window than they probably should have considering the 2008 and 2012 GOP primaries and how quickly certain candidates fell), the network should have planned better, but I don't sympathize entirely with Fiorina for a couple of reasons.  One, her team knew long-in-advance that this would be the rule, and should have protested earlier that you need shorter windows for eligibility, and two, Carly Fiorina is not going to be the nominee or see her campaign skyrocket if she is included in the grown-up debate.  Ten people on the debate stage seems too high to me, quite frankly, and I think it should probably be closer to six.  Still, pragmatically looking at recent polls Fiorina should be in the debate over Gov. Chris Christie, who has endured a huge fall in his ability and will likely exit the primaries before a vote is cast and will, in 2018, leave the public stage indefinitely having squandered his star by assuming it would last forever (he was a fool for not reading the tea leaves and going for the nomination in 2012, when he likely could have beaten Mitt Romney-you can claim hindsight is 20/20, but I think we all kind of knew it was an unnecessarily big risk to wait when his window was very much open three years ago).

-Gov. Martin O'Malley came out swinging this past Friday in Minneapolis against the DNC while the subject of his ire, Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz looked on in frustration.  O'Malley accused the DNC (never DWS by name, but it was clear she was who he was going after) of rigging the debate schedule to help Hillary Clinton win the nomination, and I could not agree with him more.  I have stated many times that I am supportive of the Clinton nomination (though not yet ready to endorse her), but the debate schedule is a joke.  For starters, DWS and the DNC have done a horrible job in countering the Republicans who are going to have had two debates and a forum before the Democrats even have their first get-together.  As a result, the GOP candidates have been dominating the airwaves and conversation for months, and the Democrats simply look late-to-the-party.  Wasserman Schultz, in my opinion, has been an absolute disaster in the chair with the Democrats losing horribly down-ballot during her tenure and the DNC's fundraising lagging behind its congressional counterparts.  Just add this to the list of why I can't wait for 2016 to get here, and hopefully for DWS to become a Democratic backbencher and not try to make a play at the House leadership.

Shameless Self-Promotion of the Week...

-A gentle reminder to all of those liberals who say Bernie Sanders is way more progressive than Hillary Clinton.

YouTube Video of the Week...

-My brother emailed this to me saying "isn't this one of your dreams come true?"  And yes, yes it is-Darren Criss and Aaron Tveit dueting with each other (and yes, while Darren is perfect, I must acknowledge that Aaron with his more traditional Broadway-background is the better singer of the pair):

Just One More...

-I have to weigh in on this since it is one of my worst nightmares realized.  I'm sure you already heard about the boy who tripped and punched a fit through a 17th-century Paolo Porpora floral painting worth $1.5 million.  Seriously-I am petrified of doing this to the point where I have thought about wearing slip-on shoes at museums.  I actually attend art and history museums on a regular basis (I'm one of those people who actually visits their local museums when they have new exhibitions and doesn't just talk about it, and will in fact be going to the art museum next weekend in Minneapolis to catch the new Irises painting), but I constantly am shuffling my feet for fear of a shoelace-ruining a Monet or watching my grandma like a hawk since she has this petrifying history of walking backwards when looking at paintings, not realizing there's a statue in the middle of the room.  Anyone else have this fear?