Banksy at Occupy London: See the Street Artist's Monopoly Sculpture Before It Got Vandalized

By Keith Plocek
From http://blogs.laweekly.com/

Colin Young-Wolff

​Angelenos aren't strangers to the works of British street artist Banksy. His participation in MOCA's street art show was a (predictably secret) given, and the man plastered L.A. during the run-up to the Oscars, inspiring residents of Westwood Village to petition for his works to remain. And don't get us started on the career of Mr. Brainwash, Bansky's special present to our fair city. LA Weekly photographer Colin Young-Wolff just got back from a tour of Europe, and he sent over a photo from Occupy London that is reputed to be a Banksy sculpture and has since been tagged over.
A blogger at ArtLyst explains: "The downside of leaving this amazing work of art in the middle of the grounds of St Paul's unprotected is that other protesters have drawn graffiti all over the sculpture to highlight their own particular brand of causes. Banksy has never been concerned with creating lasting or permanent works of art."
True that. The piece was made to be vandalized. But at least Colin got a great pic before it happened.

Colin Young-Wolff

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Did I miss out on a grand joke until just now?

True Definition of Funny Money.

Sprint complains of antitrust risk; T-Mobile out of keynote

By Electronista Staff

From: http://www.electronista.com/

Sprint warns ATT T-Mobile deal antitrust concern

Sprint and T-Mobile late Sunday quickly issued formal reactions to the AT&T buyout of T-Mobile. As expected, Sprint objected to the $39 billion deal and said it would "alter dramatically" the US cellular landscape. It would put too much power in the hands of AT&T and Verizon, making them gatekeepers for things such as backbones and roaming deals.

"If approved, the merger would result in a wireless industry dominated overwhelmingly by two vertically-integrated companies that control almost 80% of the US wireless post-paid market, as well as the availability and price of key inputs such as backhaul and access needed by other wireless companies to compete," Sprint wrote.

Democratic Senator Jay Rockefeller stressed to the Department of Justice and the FCC that it was "absolutely essential" the deal be investigated. He added that the Commerce Committee would be involved.

AT&T originally insisted the deal would be competitive as 18 of 20 major cities had five or more networks to compete from. Critics, however, have responded that the added clout gives AT&T an unfair advantage in device selection. T-Mobile also has unlimited-with-throttling data and doesn't block non-Market apps on Android devices, both of which would likely go away without the FCC imposing price and openness regulations on the deal.

T-Mobile, meanwhile, has chosen to back out of the official CTIA opening keynote. It was to have participated in an event at the Orlando show on Tuesday, March 22 at 9AM alongside the heads of other major carriers AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon. A statement said only that the exit was due to "extenuating work demands," though it's most likely either due to work relating to the merger or the complications of having to present after its position had suddenly changed.

A conference call discussing the AT&T and T-Mobile buyout is due to take place Monday at 7:30AM; Electronista hopes to provide live coverage.

Wall Street monopoly set worth $2m

The world's most expensive Monopoly set has gone on show on Wall Street, complete with a gold board and jewel encrusted pieces.

Ridley Scott is Directing Monopoly

by: Peter Sciretta

I’ve decided to make “Worst Idea Ever” a regular feature since it appears that the Hollywood movie studios are in a never-ending race to see who can greenlight the worst of the worst ideas.

Ridley Scott is now OFFICIALLY attached to direct a big screen movie based on Hasbro’s popular board game Monopoly. Corpse Bride/Monster House scribe Pamela Pettler has been hired to write the script. Scott had been developing the project with plans to produce since June 2007.

The Hollywood Reporter claims that Scott plans to give the film “a futuristic sheen along the lines of his iconic Blade Runner,” but back in August 2007 Scott told the LA Times that it “ought to be humorous and for the family”. Scott explained that the humor will come out of the drastic changes in economic class, “particularly when your uncle suddenly gets [Park Place]” … “You watch people change. You’re witness to Jekyll and Hyde. Somewhere in that is a hysterically amusing and I think rather exciting film.”

I know that Scott’s recent filmography hasn’t been “amazing” (American Gangster is overrated), but this is the guy who directed Alien, Blade Runner and Gladiator. What is a guy of that caliber doing directing a family comedy based on a board game? Seriously!

The answer is: GI Jane. Some of you might not remember, but Ridley Scott was also behind the atrocity that was GI Jane. I’m sure that Monopoly movie will be Scott’s huge clunker of this decade.