Nude opera pics shock China and the wake up show traxxfm
352nd day of 2008 - 14 remaining
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
on this date in quirkie news....1994: A Boston man was arrested at a hospital after taking two live lobsters from a supermarket tank and stuffing them down his pants. Police called it shoplifting. Doctors called it "a do-it-yourself vasectomy."
Nude opera pics shock China
A Chinese photographer is creating shockwaves with a new exhibition combining nudity and opera.
Liu Zheng, 39, has been accused of cheapening Peking Opera which is regarded as a cornerstone of Chinese culture.
His work, entitled Naked Peking Opera, has gone on show at the New Beijing Gallery but has been slammed by traditionalists.
Liu, a former photo-journalist, turned to art because he felt he needed to express his views on modern Chinese society.
"In my opinion Peking Opera has too many oppressing elements, too many rules, musts and must-nots, which in some sense is like Chinese culture," he said.
"Nudity, on the other hand, breaks up these rules and challenges the traditional mindset."
The models in the pictures are not real opera singers but ordinary people wearing Peking Opera make-up.
"I asked a few real Peking opera artists to participate, but all of them refused since they felt if they did then they wouldn't be able to return to the stage again," added Liu.
However, many visitors to the exhibition were shocked by his pictures which they felt desecrated Chinese culture.
Company manager Yu Meiren stormed out of the exhibition after blasting the nude opera pictures as "mind twisted".
Scout leaders capsized by hippo
Three British scout leaders were forced to trek through jungle for five days after a hippo capsized their canoe.
Terrified Brian Sheen, 66, Geoff Ryder, 59, and Michael Billworth, 23, were travelling on the River Niger in Guinea when the huge beast struck.
They were four days into a planned 2,500-mile river journey through Africa, reports the Daily Mail.
Mr Sheen, a retired chemist of Par, Cornwall, said: "We were on full hippo watch and all of a sudden we came to an abrupt halt. I thought we had hit a rock. The front went up and the middle went up.
"Then the back flew in the air and Geoff, who is 16 stone, was suddenly airborne and landed in the water beside the boat.
"It burst out like a submarine missile. We didn't have time to be scared. The canoe was going down fast. The hippo was about 20 yards away looking at us."
The men ditched their canoe - made from a tree trunk - and escaped after scrambling up the riverbank.
They abandoned all their gear apart from their sat nav systems and started a trek through head-high elephant grass and bamboo.
Five days later they reached a village and were fed by the inhabitants, before being given a lift 60 miles on motorcycles back to the town of Faranah in Guinea where they had begun their journey.
Q: What do you get if you cross a pig and a dinosaur?
A: Jurassic Pork.
Couple served legal papers via Facebook
An Australian couple have been served with legal documents via Facebook.
Canberra lawyer Mark McCormack persuaded a court to allow him to use the social networking site after other methods failed.
The couple's home is being repossessed after they reportedly missed loan repayments, reports the BBC.
Mr McCormack says he resorted to Facebook after unsuccessful attempts to contact them at their home address and via email, and they failed to attend a court appearance on 3 October.
He found the woman's page, and used details listed there such as her date of birth to argue in the Australian Capital Territory Supreme Court that she was the person in question. Her partner was listed as one of her "friends".
In granting permission to use the social networking site, the judge stipulated that the papers be sent via a private email so that other people visiting the page could not read their contents.
"It's somewhat novel, however we do see it as a valid method of bringing the matter to the attention of a defendant," Mr McCormack said.
He said he thought courts would continue to use Facebook, as long as they were sure it was reasonably likely to come to the attention of those concerned.
Australian courts have previously allowed people to be served with legal papers via email or even text message but this is the first time Facebook has been used.
DUNGGU criminal for today comes from the International File in Queensland, Australia, where bozo Benjamin Alexander submitted claims to the Australian Medicare Department, saying he was owed over $2700 for medical services.
His problems began when he told an auditor that the gynecological and obstetrics services he was asking payment for were performed on him.
Yes, he is a man. Maybe he needs to brush up on medical procedures before he files any more false claims. He's under arrest.
A Chinese man says he likes to relax by eating live snakes and washing them down with beer.
Wen Xide, 41, of Wangzhuang village, Zhumadian, says he has been eating live snakes for 10 years.
He started by eating one to win a bet with friends for a packet of cigarettes.
"From then on I became addicted to eating live snakes," he said.
Wen demonstrated his habit to a visiting journalist from Oriental Today by chewing down two live snakes bit by bit over a bottle of beer.
"It's a bit smelly, but they're very delicious," he exclaimed - although watching villagers said the sight gave them goosebumps and two vomited at the scene.
Wen says his son is now following his lead and has eaten eight live snakes this year.
But Wang Tianming, a doctor specialising in digestion at a local hospital, said Wen could suffer nerve problems and risked infection from parasites.
ENTERTAINMENT NEWS ON THE WAKE UP SHOW
Naomi Watts Gives Birth to Son
Actress Naomi Watts has given birth to her second child with actor husband Liev Schreiber.
Watts, 40 and Schreiber, 41, welcomed their second son in New York on Saturday.
A spokesperson for the couple revealed on Sunday, "I can confirm that she had a baby boy yesterday."
The baby is a little brother for Alexander, who was born in Los Angeles in 2007.
Rose Denies Album Sales Slumping from 'Fear of People'
Guns N' Roses frontman Axl Rose has laughed off reports he has canceled interviews to promote the band's new album, "Chinese Democracy," because he is suffering a fear of people.
The CD, which took 15 years to complete and release, entered at number three in the Billboard chart at the beginning of this month with disappointing sales of 261,000.
A source tells the New York Post that Rose has refused to promote the floundering disc due to the crippling effects of "anthropophobia."
A music industry insider tells the newspaper, "He has fired his management company, Front Line, three times in four weeks.
"He hasn't left his Los Angeles home in two months. He won't give interviews, won't do talk shows, or perform -- which makes touring or promoting very difficult, obviously."
But the rocker's spokesperson, Larry Solters, denies Rose has returned
to his reclusive ways, adding, "He has not been diagnosed with
anthropophobia. He hasn't fired Front Line, and no interviews have been
canceled."
Spears Kept Cowell Waiting
Music mogul Simon Cowell was treated like a schoolboy as he waited to meet Britney Spears on the set of his British talent show "The X Factor," according to fellow judge Dannii Minogue.
The singer made a much-criticized appearance on the reality show last month, but it didn't stop the judges clamoring to meet her.
And Minogue reveals how the singer's entourage ensured Spears was left alone until she was ready to meet them, and had them lining up like youngsters waiting for class.
She says, "It was hysterical. We were all like little kids at the principal's office. There were so many security guards and PR people and they had to block the whole corridor before she could come out the door."
But Minogue has blasted the 27-year-old for not meeting the contestants competing on the show.
She adds, "They were genuinely excited to be in her presence and she only had to say 'Hi' to five acts. At that point, I thought, 'What a shame because you've just crushed those contestants.' She didn't have to be like that."
Bono Awarded Nobel 'Man of Peace' Award
Irish rocker Bono has been awarded the annual Nobel Man of Peace prize for his efforts to combat poverty, debt and disease in Africa.
Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe hosted the award ceremony in the city on Friday, honoring the U2 frontman for his global campaign to persuade rich nations to lend assistance to the struggling continent.
Bono told the crowd, which included fellow Nobel laureates, "This is a very big award for me, because let's be honest this is as close as I am going to get -- as close as a rock star is ever going to get to the Nobel Peace Prize.
"I am an over-awarded, over-rewarded rock star. You are the people who do the real work.
"So I am very, very pleased to be in such esteemed company." Italian co-host Walter Veltroni, added, "We decided to nominate a man who has given a lot and will continue to give a great deal to the struggle for human rights, to the fight against poverty, with his music and with his words.
"He has put pressure on the world's governments to reach the UN's Millennium Goals. To give him the prize, is to say that fight will carry on."
Actors George Clooney and Don Cheadle were awarded the prize last year.
