The lawsuit filed by the UFC (through its parent company, Zuffa) and several MMA fighters, including Jon “Bones” Jones, Gina Carano, Frankie Edgar and Brian Stann seeking to invalidate New York State’s ban on professional MMA events came to an end yesterday when U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood of the Southern District of New York threw out the case.
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With the downfall of Sheldon Silver, New York’s powerful Speaker of the State Assembly, MMA enthusiasts and organizations are confident that this will, finally, be the year that New York lifts its ban on professional MMA events in the state. Silver, an outspoken opponent of lifting the ban, was credited with single-handedly stifling multiple bills in favor of ending the ban – bills that have repeatedly passed the State Senate and probably would have passed the Assembly had Silver allowed an up-and-down vote. The logjam has been such that the UFC and several fighters have even tried to challenge the ban in court on freedom of speech grounds.
(more…)What if Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark had never made it to opening night? That’s not an unrealistic proposition. After all, between injured actors, scathing/mocking reviews and lawsuits galore (including one from director Julie Taymor alleging that Bono, among other things, showed up to production meetings drunk and with supermodels in tow), the famously troubled production was lucky to even make it to the stage in the first place. Even though it ran until January 2014, the play cost so much to produce ($65 million!) and stage ($1.3 million weekly budget!) that it ranks among the biggest flops in Broadway history with losses rumored to be somewhere in the neighborhood of $60 million.
So, what if the show had been cancelled before it saw the light of day? It’s hard to say what Bono and the Edge would have done, but one thing is for sure: They would have had to do something with all of the songs they had recorded for the “Spiderman Turn Off the Dark” Soundtrack.
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After nine years in New York (including the last three-and-a-half years with ALM Media), I will no longer be a resident of the Big Apple. As of December 9, I’ll be based in Chicago as a legal affairs writer with the ABA Journal. I’m also excited to be embarking on this new adventure with my lovely wife.
In the meantime, I’d like to thank everyone at Law Technology News and American Lawyer Magazine for three-and-a-half wonderful years.
“It’s time to move on, time to get going. What lies ahead, I have no way of knowing. But under my feet, baby, grass is growing. It’s time to move on, it’s time to get going.” — Tom Petty
NY Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and mayor-to-be Bill de Blasio renewed their effort to pressure smartphone manufacturers to include a kill switch on their phones. The October press conference was the latest stage in Schneiderman’s ongoing campaign to convince manufacturers to improve the security features of their smartphones.
By the way, when did this Seagal movie come out? I know he’s made like 30 direct-to-DVD movies in the last few years, but I don’t remember hearing anything about this “masterpiece.” I can only imagine what the dialogue was like. “I brought my own kill switch,” said Seagal while pointing his gun at the camera. Then again, nothing is ever topping this one-liner.
Lou Reed was a genius. But not because he was a great musician.
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Concert Review:
Depeche Mode
September 6, 2013
Barclays Center
The reason I didn’t review the latest Depeche Mode album, “Delta Machine,” is because Stereogum summed it up better than I ever could:
At this point, Depeche Mode are pretty much new-wave synthpop’s Rolling Stones. They have such a deep and unfuckwithable catalog of hits that they could continue touring arenas until their bodies just completely give up. Nobody really needs them to keep recording new music, and yet they keep doing it.
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Good Samaritan, and Kirkland & Ellis employee, saves a man from an oncoming subway car in New York City. This one was fun to write and was a nice change of pace from my usual stuff.
U.S. district judge Kimba Wood trimmed a lawsuit brought by mixed martial artists in New York arguing that the state ban on MMA events is unconstitutional.
See also: Battleground State: The Battle to Legalize Mixed Martial Arts in New York.
You usually don’t associate sports with the First Amendment. The UFC hopes the courts will do what the NY legislature has failed to do, thus far. On a personal note, this was the first time I’ve written about MMA since my J-School days.
Related posts:
Battleground State: The Battle to Legalize Mixed Martial Arts in New York.
Adapted from my initial concert review on my Livejournal site. The original piece was more of a play-by-play of each song at the show.
Concert Review:
The Police
August 3, 2007
Madison Square Garden
Maybe when Stewart Copeland is done being a drummer, he has a possible career as a political spin doctor.
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Concert Review:
Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood
February 25, 2008
Madison Square Garden
The knock on Eric Clapton is that he plays to the level of the musicians around him. His best days were in bands, surrounded by the likes of John Mayall and John McVie in the Bluesbreakers, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker in Cream, Baker and Steve Winwood in Blind Faith, and Duane Allman, Bobby Whitlock, Jim Gordon and Carl Radle in Derek and the Dominos. As a solo artist, his albums and tours often turn into boring, uninspired affairs unless he’s collaborating with a talented musician that can push him, like a Mark Knopfler, a Stevie Ray Vaughan or a B.B. King.
Or a Steve Winwood. The two took part in the aforementioned Blind Faith, a supergroup whose hype far exceeded its actual output. The band, which began when Clapton and Winwood started hanging out after Cream and Traffic, their respective bands, broke up, was never intended to be anything more than an informal side project between two friends. Then Baker showed up and it turned into a “thing,” a “thing” that touched off a bidding war between record companies, a “thing” that caused riots to break out at their shows, and a “thing” that pushed Clapton away, causing said “thing” to die a premature death.
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This is an old favorite of mine. I originally wrote it for my Livejournal blog and decided it was time to import it over here. Still holds up, except for the fact that the Verve broke up shortly afterwards. That and the Robbie Williams line about not wanting to rejoin Take That.
Concert Review:
The Verve
April 29, 2008
WaMu Theater at Madison Square Garden
When the Verve released “Urban Hymns” in 1997, they seemed poised to become the biggest of all the British pop bands that were invading America from across the Atlantic during the mid-90’s. Oasis had great hooks, but they were about as likeable as smallpox. Blur couldn’t escape from the shadows of their biggest U.S. hit, the ubiquitous “Song 2” (currently playing at some sporting event somewhere in this country). Radiohead were too esoteric and were about as interested in promoting themselves as Robbie Williams was in rejoining Take That. The Verve, however, had great songs, a unique psychedelic/rock sound, a loyal and devoted fan base, and a charismatic frontman in Richard Ashcroft.
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I got the scoop on Anthony Weiner’s lawyer.
And here’s a hat tip from the Wall Street Journal.
My original lede was rejected. It said that “Anthony Weiner has been less than frank about his online liaisons with various women.” Everyone else zigged while I zagged.
Concert Review:
Cream
October 25, 2005
Madison Square Garden
Irony must have played a part in Simon & Garfunkel’s decision to call their 2003 reunion tour the “Old Friends Tour.” After all, it was clear that, despite agreeing to work together once again, the pair hadn’t completely moved on from their decades-long feud. Concert reviewers detected a lack of warmth between the two, forced humor that was repeated at multiple shows (they did the “this is the 50th anniversary of the year we met, but the 47th anniversary of our first fight” joke in Los Angeles, New York and Washington, D.C., among others), and noted that Paul Simon looked like he’d rather sink another $6 million into a disastrous Broadway musical than give Garfunkel any praise or credit for his contributions to the group. The only way these two were really “Old Friends” would be if you used the word “old” to mean “former.”
Those shows were a veritable love-in compared to the Cream reunion.
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About Me:
- Former Lawyer.
- Current Journalist/Writer/Editor.
- Author of "Nixon in New York: How Wall Street Helped Richard Nixon Win the White House," published in 2018.
- Married to a wonderful woman, father of two sweet dogs.
- Chicago via Pittsburgh, New York City and several others.