http://www.liveleak.com/browse?q=PLAYER Wed, 22 May 2013 15:21:02 -0400 Liveleak http://edge.liveleak.com/80281E/u/u/ll2/logo.gif http://www.liveleak.com/browse?q=PLAYER Wed, 22 May 2013 06:57:56 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=ad3_1369220155 jasonbosh333 Cutest Player... Cutest Goal... http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=ad3_1369220155 jasonbosh333 Cutest <span class="highlight">Player</span>... Cutest Goal... funny Sat, 18 May 2013 09:28:43 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=726_1368883596 draxisback Only won the last 4/13 and then cries when a judge tells him GG newb you got served. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=726_1368883596 draxisback Epic Tennis <span class="highlight">Player</span> Meltdown. &quot;You know your wrong&quot; Douche, Tennis, Sports, Rage, Cry baby, Worst tennis player ever Thu, 16 May 2013 13:40:55 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=de1_1368725867 dcmfox Apparently, Lincoln Haymakers coach Dave Brumagen subscribes to the Woody Hayes philosophy of coaching football. Hayes, of course, is the legendary Ohio State coach who led the Buckeyes to five National Championships and 13 Big Ten titles, then got fired tout de suite after he hit an opposing player in plain view of the TV cameras at the 1978 Gator Bowl. And obviously, I say that Brugmen must be a follower of his because now he, too, has gotten into hot water over an on-field assault of an opposing player. Of course, the Champions Professional Indoor Football League isn't exactly the Big Ten, but it's not the LFL, either. The incident in question happened at a recent game between the Lincoln Haymakers and Omaha Beef. After Beef running back R.J. Rollins scored what would turn out to be the game-winning touchdown in a 27-23 win for his team, the guy got tackled at mid-field by Brumagen, the Haymakers coach. As you would expect, a little skirmish involving players from both teams followed Brumagen's tackle. Have a look for yourself: All in all, two players from each team were ejected from the game, though, for some reason the Haymakers coach was not. Afterward, however, the CPIFL took serious action. Six players were suspended for either one or two games, and Brumagen received a season-long suspension and a $500 fine. That may not seem like much, but when you only make $10,000 a year plus tips, a $500 fine is huge. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=de1_1368725867 dcmfox Football Coach Attacks Opposing Running Back, Gets Suspended for the Season indoor, football, coach, attacks, player, brumagen Sun, 19 May 2013 16:11:22 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=639_1368994193 mtnmanx Bleeping impressive in any sport, even an 'elite' one. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=639_1368994193 mtnmanx Lacrosse <span class="highlight">player</span> makes 80 yard goal lacrosse, lacrosse goal, 80 yard goal, amazing goal Sun, 19 May 2013 14:33:09 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=ce9_1368988295 dcmfox Awesome http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=ce9_1368988295 dcmfox Coolest Flute <span class="highlight">Player</span> Ever beatbox, flute Fri, 17 May 2013 02:24:19 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=a17_1368770815 JustinTime Viktor Troicki was so sure that his shot in the second set landed in bounds that he nearly quit his second-round match of the Italian Open against Ernests Gulbis on Wednesday. After losing the first set 6-1 and facing a break point in the first game of the second set, the Serbian hit a cross-court backhand that was ruled out by chair umpire Cedric Mourier. Troicki appealed and Mourier ran over to the spot to confirm his ruling, but that didn't satisfy the 27-year-old. Troicki hopped over the net, looked at the spot and proceeded to throw a tantrum. "No, come on. You know you're wrong! Come on, you know you're wrong!" he said. "You called it and now you don't want to overrule yourself. Come on there is no space. You know there is no space. Come on now I don't want to play like this." Troicki continued to argue with the Mourier and even dragged the cameraman to the spot, presumably to prove to the viewers that he was correct. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=a17_1368770815 JustinTime Tennis <span class="highlight">Player</span> Viktor Troicki's Meltdown: Argues With Chair Umpire At Italian Open Viktor, Troicki, Meltdown, Arguing, Chair, Umpire, Italian, Open Mon, 20 May 2013 14:38:10 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=0fb_1369074865 mtnmanx Kid got serious game. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=0fb_1369074865 mtnmanx Seventh grade Michael Jordan type plays real ball great kid basketball player, young basketball star Tue, 21 May 2013 11:39:20 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=d5b_1369149417 Detroit Iron 10:27 AM XAVIANT HAZE Miami is a world famous Mecca of sun, sand, sex and fun outlandish decadence. It's also a very dark town, haunted by real life zombies , third world-esque poverty and a long history of racial segregation and violence . Because of this entropic mix Miami boasts an impressive musical resume, birthing a mix of pirates, tropical wanderers and wayward sons that over the decades have created some of the most groundbreaking, influential and varying musical styles. With a long history of music innovation and violence, it's no wonder that Miami shows up as the spark that helped create Rock n' Roll - in the form of a Suicide note. Late one night in some neon faded Art Deco beach hotel, an anonymous man killed himself leaving behind only a crumbled note in one of his jean pockets. On the note where the words "I walk a lonely street" his last ode to a cruel world. Little did he know his sacrificial death would soon give birth to a whole new generation of music lovers. His unidentified corpse was shown on the cover of the Miami Herald with the headline asking, "Do You Know This Man?" When exactly this suicide happened can't be confirmed and a search of the Miami Herald Digital Archives hasn't provided any help. We know that it was sometime in 1955 when Steel-guitar player, singer-songwriter and failed dishwasher repairman Tommy Durden read the Herald suicide article while working a gig in Jacksonville, Florida. Durden believed the suicide note's line had a dark blues quality and scribbled it down as a future song lyric. He showed the article and the lyric to his friend Mae Boren Axton, herself a songwriter, TV personality, radio host and publicist. Mae immediately was drawn to the lyric, deciding that naturally at the end of a lonely street one would find a "Heartbreak Hotel" and with that verse, a light bulb of creativity exploded in the warm Florida air. Mae wrote the rest of the lyrics while Durden worked out the melodies on his guitar. Within an hour the duo had composed one of the most important songs in the history of music. But Mae was more than just a schoolteacher and part-time songwriter; she was a visionary who saw the 'big picture' before anybody else. That 'big picture' was Elvis Presley and way before the Colonel turned him into a money making machine, Mae Axton was convinced that Elvis was going to be the biggest thing to hit America since the Model-T Ford. Mae first encountered Elvis during a tour she helped set up in Jacksonville, Florida when the relatively unknown Memphis singer was a last minute replacement booked to open for country recording star Hank Snow. As Elvis began his set, Mae Quietly blended in with the crowd at the Gator Bowl, and watched in awe as twenty-year old Elvis completely blew the audience away with his mix of hillbilly swag, bluesy crooning and pelvic shaking lunacy. After his performance, teenage girls chased Elvis back to the dressing room while managing to completely tear off the young stud's shirt. The forty-year old Mae had never seen anything like that in her entire life. Nobody had. She quickly helped get Elvis booked for a return show on July 28, 1955, which caused excessive lines of teenage girls waiting to get inside and irate local preachers screaming about the dangers of Elvis's shaking hips. After another smashing performance Mae interviewed Elvis for a local radio station. She was influential in helping get Elvis's first record "That's alright Mamma" radio airplay in Florida and during the interview the 'King' gratefully acknowledges this fact... "Well, thank you very much, Mae, and I'd like to personally thank you for really promoting my record, because you really have done a wonderful job, and I really do appreciate it because if you don't have people backing you, people pushing you, well you might as well quit." After the interview Mae boldly declared to Elvis that she would write his first number one hit. After concluding the "Heartbreak" writing session with Durden, a local Country singer named Glenn Reeves stopped by for a visit and was immediately put to work by Mae. She asked Reeves to record a demo of the song with her tape recorder in the style of Elvis Presley, Reeves wasn't a fan but being a good friend did the song anyways. The fact that Reeves even knew who Elvis was, is a testament to how much buzz the 'King' had created for himself in the South. After finishing the song, Reeves thought "Heartbreak Hotel" was weird and that Elvis "wouldn't go far" and declined any credit or association with the song. Mae had no intention of ever using Reeves anyways; she just wanted something to show Elvis in the hopes that he would record the song. She approached the popular country duo The Wilburn Brothers and offered them a chance to record a better quality version of "Heartbreak Hotel" but the duo declined, calling the song "Strange and almost Morbid". With no choice but to hunt down the kid on her own, she headed to Nashville where Elvis was being honored as the most promising male country star of 1955 at the annual Country Music Disc Jockey Convention. By this time the Colonel Tom Parker had weaseled his way to becoming Elvis's manager, and shortly after Thanksgiving of 1955 secured for Elvis a record deal at RCA. Since Mae had worked with Tom before as a publicist in the early 50's she was on familiar terms with the Memphis slickster. It's even rumored that Mae is the only person in the world that the notorious Colonel Tom Parker has ever apologized to. After talking with Tom about a song she wanted Elvis to record she was told where to find the kid, and headed out in the rain towards the Andrew Jackson Hotel. Elvis was relaxing in his room and in a jovial mood when Mae showed up with her tape-recorded demo. Upon hearing the rough sounding tape Elvis shouted, "Hot dog, Mae! Play it again!" mesmerized as he played the track about ten times in a row. Elvis said the song reminded him of Roy Brown's " Hard Luck Blues " and agreed to record a version. Mae was delighted and the next day they sat down with the Colonel to hammer out a deal. Though the team of Mae and Durden are responsible for penning the song, Elvis's name appears on the finished record as a third writer. It's common knowledge that the Colonel often insisted his boy get co-writing credits in exchange for cutting a song. Always securing a steady stream of publishing checks for the two of them. However this wasn't the case, Mae was so confident that "Heartbreak" would help establish Elvis as a star she insisted on a shared credit in order to help Elvis buy a house for his mother in Florida. With formalities out of the way Elvis began to rehearse the song and added it his live repertoire, changing one line of the lyric, from "they pray to die" to "they could die" while performing the song for the first time in Swifton, Arkansas on December 9. The small club was packed with over 200 people and Elvis oozing with confidence after singing with RCA rocked the club to the floor. The club's owner and everyone there could sense that something fresh was happening. The 20-year-old Elvis was already a regional star but he had yet to appear on national television. That night in the Arkansas club, Elvis burned through some tracks he'd recorded for Sun, a few covers, and then introduced his new song in that familiar Southern drawl, "I"ve got this brand new song and it's gonna be my first hit." His words were prophetic. A month later Elvis entered the recording studios at RCA, where he was scheduled to record five songs in two days. The studio at 1525 McGavock Street was RCA's first permanent recording facility in Nashville, a town still years away from becoming the recording center of the musical universe. Surprisingly, up to then there were only a handful of studios in town. It wasJanuary 10th, 1956 and Elvis Presley who two days prior just turned 21 was ready to begin recording his debut single for RCA. Mae was also present during the session; interested in watching Elvis record live and curious to how her song would end up sounding. At Sun Records, Elvis had been backed by Sentry Moore on guitar and Bill Black on bass. Later a drummer was added -- a position eventually filled by D.J. Fontana on a permanent basis. At RCA, the Elvis combo was joined by legendary Nashville guitarist Chet Atkins on rhythm guitar and future Grammy winner Floyd Cramer on piano, along with a gospel trio consisting of Ben and Brock Speer of the Speer Family and Gordon Stoker of the Jordanaires. They recorded on monaural equipment (single track) and the studio was somewhat of a live room with a curved ceiling that created low frequency problems causing bass notes to be boomy and roll around for a long time. They were always in search of a dead spot for the bass. They also had several large curtains hanging on the walls to help "deaden" the room. They employed the use of movable "wall-like" baffles to isolate instruments to minimize sound bleeding into other mics. During that first session RCA was anxious to recreate the "slapback" echo effect that Sam Phillips had created at Sun. To add them to Elvis's vocals Chet and engineer Bob Farris created a psuedo "echo chamber" by setting up a speaker at one end of a long hallway and a microphone at the other end and recording the echo live. It sounded strange to hear it as they were recording live because at Sun studios Sam used to add the effect afterwards. This technique failed to add anything special to the first two songs they recorded " I got a Woman " and " Money Honey " but as soon as they tried it out on "Heartbreak Hotel" goose pimples suddenly appeared on everybody's skin. The heavy overdubbing of echo and the drummer's rim shots created a powerful atmosphere of upbeat despair that effortlessly matched Elvis's heart-rending vocal. It was a perfect blend of haunting lyrics and ghostly music set to the penetrating crooning of a man destined for greatness. During the opening lines to each verse when Elvis sings acapella, his voice is penetrating, dejected, and completely captures the alienation of disaffected youth. The dark track sounded like it belonged more on a Doors album than a lead single for RCA in 1956. The gloomy song was markedly different from anything Elvis had done previously at Sun Records and when his former label boss Sam Phillips heard an acetate from the Nashville session, he pronounced "Heartbreak Hotel" a "morbid mess." Biographer Donald Clarke writes: The sound quality of that first session was not good, and 'Heartbreak Hotel' is the worst of them all. Chet Atkins played rhythm guitar and Floyd Cramer was added on piano, together with an entirely unnecessary vocal trio led by Gordon Stoker, lead singer of the Jordanaires. Scotty Moore's guitar sounds exceptionally, irritatingly tinny, Cramer is too prominent and the whole track sounds like it was made underwater in a breadbox. It was a disgraceful recording for 1956 but a good song for Presley. On hearing the new songs, the RCA executives in New York freaked out and wanted to scrap the sessions. They told producer Steve Sholes to turn around and head straight back to Nashville to re-record the tracks. Sholes later stated, "They all told me it didn't sound like anything, it didn't sound like his other records and I'd better not release it, better go back and record it again" But Elvis was unfazed and begged the grey-haired executives to trust his instincts and release "Heartbreak Hotel" as a single. Promising that if it sank he would be at their mercy for any song they wanted out of him. Elvis had that Southern charm, and he had it in spades. The RCA 'brass' relented and pressed ahead with the release, albeit with sizeable suspicions. Elvis clearly believed in it, certain that the song was the right one to catapult him into the big time. It was properly mastered and released as a 45 single with the B-side " I was the One " on January 27, 1956 and went nowhere despite Elvis making his network television debut on the Dorsey Brothers Stage Show. For the first month of its release "Heartbreak Hotel" barely registered on the pop charts and seemed to prove that the RCA executives were right. But that all changed when Elvis finally had the chance to perform the song on the popular Milton Berle Show. This performance from the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Hancock in San Diego California, rocketed Elvis to superstardom. His good looks, unique voice and swiveling hips sent the blonde-haired, blue-eyed Californian girls into a frenzy of screams, faints and tears. The men had never seen anything like it and the San Diego Police Chief announced that if Elvis ever returned to his city and performed in the way that he did he would be jailed for disorderly conduct. Like a meteor blast Elvis had hit the mainstream. The fateful string oftelevision exposure (a new medium) undoubtedly helped propel "Heartbreak Hotel" to the number-one spot on Billboard's best-seller list 45 days after its release, where it stayed #1 for eight weeks. The song also reached number one on the country chart and number three on the R&amp;B chart. It became Elvis Presley's first Gold record selling more than a million copies just as Mae Axton had predicted. Considering this is the song that really introduced rock to the mainstream (white public) it's amazing how dark the lyrics really are... Well, since my baby left me, I found a new place to dwell It's down at the end of lonely street at Heartbreak Hotel You make me so lonely baby, I get so lonely, I get so lonely I could die And although it's always crowded, you still can find some room Where broken hearted lovers do cry away their gloom You make me so lonely baby, I get so lonely, I get so lonely I could die Well, the Bell hop's tears keep flowin', and the desk clerk's dressed in black Well they been so long on lonely street They ain't ever gonna look back You make me so lonely baby, I get so lonely, I get so lonely I could die Hey now, if your baby leaves you, and you got a tale to tell Just take a walk down lonely street to Heartbreak Hotel "Heartbreak Hotel" put Elvis on the map, and helped forever alter the landscape of Popular Culture. He would perform the song during most of his live shows between 1956 and 1977, including a blistering rendition on his 1968 comeback special. Elvis performed it for the last time on May 29, 1977 at the Civic Center inBaltimore, Maryland. The song and alternative takes have been released on almost every Presley compilation album since the 60's. In 1979, following Presley's death, author Robert Matthew-Walker wrote, "Heartbreak Hotel became one of the legendary rock performances. For many people it is Elvis Presley, and it continues to excite and fascinate listeners. Heartbreak Hotel is a classic performance, yet when it is analyzed it appears so simple that one cannot recall a time when one did not know it." "Heartbreak Hotel" is one of the most influential songs of all time. It single handedly ushered in the era of Rock n' Roll and influenced every key rock artist in its wake. In a 1975 interview, John Lennon recalled his friend Don Beatty introducing him to Presley's music. Lennon said that his family rarely had the radio on, unlike other members of The Beatles who grew up under its influence. Beatty showed Lennon a picture of Presley that appeared along with the charts on the New Musical Express magazine, and Lennon later heard "Heartbreak Hotel" on Radio Luxembourg. Lennon said: When I first heard "Heartbreak Hotel", I could hardly make out what was being said. It was just the experience of hearing it and having my hair stand on end. We'd never heard American voices singing like that. They always sung like Sinatra or enunciate very well. Suddenly, there's this hillbilly hiccuping on tape echo and all this bluesy stuff going on. And we didn't know what Elvis was singing about... It took us a long time to work what was going on. To us, it just sounded as a noise that was great. George Harrison credits "Heartbreak Hotel" with handing him a "rock n roll epiphany" when in 1956, at age 13, he overheard it being played at a neighbor's house while riding his bike. Thus, it was "Heartbreak Hotel" that turned Harrison from a relatively well-mannered schoolboy into a guitar-crazed truant who would audition for John Lennon's Quarrymen the following year. The Rolling Stones' guitarist Keith Richards stated in his 2010 autobiography,Life, that "Heartbreak Hotel" was one of the first rock and roll influences he had. Apart from Presley's impact on him, Richards was even more impressed by Scotty Moore's guitar playing, as well as the rest of the band. Richards says: Good records just get better with age. But the one that really turned me on, like an explosion one night, listening to Radio Luxembourg on my little radio when I was supposed to be in bed and asleep, was "Heartbreak Hotel." That was the stunner. I'd never heard it before, or anything like it. I'd never heard of Elvis before. It was almost as if I'd been waiting for it to happen. When I woke up the next day I was a different guy. Led Zeppelin's lead singer Robert Plant stated that the song "changed his life". He recalled hearing it for the first time when he was eight years old: It was so animal, so sexual, the first musical arousal I ever had. You could see a twitch in everybody my age. All we knew about the guy was that he was cool, handsome and looked wild. Critic Robert Cantwell wrote in his unpublished memoir Twigs of Folly: The opening strains of "Heartbreak Hotel", which catapulted Presley's regional popularity into national hysteria, opened a fissure in the massive mile-thick wall of post-war regimentation, standardization, bureaucratization, and commercialization in American society and let come rushing through the rift a cataract from the immense waters of sheer, human pain and frustration that have been building up for ten decades behind it. Paul McCartney says, "It's the way Elvis sings it as if he is singing from the depths of hell. His phrasing, use of echo, it's all so beautiful. Musically, it's perfect." With "Heartbreak Hotel" a certifiable smash Elvis Presley was on his way to superstardom. Over the years he begged Mae to write another song for him, but feeling she could never top "Heartbreak" Mae declined, content that her initial hunch about Elvis was right. Mae continued to write other minor hits through the 60s and 70s while maintaining a career as a schoolteacher and community activist. Proud to have set Elvis on his way but completely nonchalant about writing one of the most groundbreaking songs ever. In a 1982 interview, the song's co-writer Tommy Durden said the song, "has paid the rent for more than 20 years." Citing its cultural significance the Grammy's inducted the song into their Hall of Fameand when then presidential candidate Bill Clinton (the first black president) made his famous appearance on The Arsenio Hall Show in 1992, he chose "Heartbreak Hotel" to play on his sax. He killed it, got the crowd hyped and secured the gig for the presidency... And to the deserted soul who took his own life in Miami, never knowing that his suicide note "I walk a lonely street" would forever change the world by helping to shape &amp; create the phenomena of Rock n' Roll - Thank You. Sadly, your loss was our gain. C'est la vie... http://xavianthaze.blogspot.com/2013/05/how-suicide-in-miami-gave-birth-to.html http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=d5b_1369149417 Detroit Iron HOW A SUICIDE IN MIAMI GAVE BIRTH TO &quot;HEARTBREAK HOTEL&quot; AND THE RISE OF ROCK N' ROLL Elvis, Heartbreak Hotel Tue, 21 May 2013 09:21:52 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=bb6_1369140862 marypoppinsonheroin Ray Manzarek, a founding member of the 1960s rock group The Doors whose versatile and often haunting keyboards complemented Jim Morrison's gloomy baritone and helped set the mood for some of rock's most enduring songs, has died. He was 74. Manzarek died Monday in Rosenheim, Germany, surrounded by his family, said publicist Heidi Robinson-Fitzgerald. She said the musician's manager, Tom Vitorino, confirmed Manzarek died after being stricken with bile duct cancer. The Doors' original lineup, which also included drummer John Densmore and guitarist Robbie Krieger, was only together for a few years and they only made six studio albums. But the band has retained a large and obsessive following decades after Morrison's death, in 1971. The Doors have sold more than 100 million records and songs such as "Light My Fire" and "Riders On the Storm" are still "classic" rock favorites. For Doors admirers, the band symbolized the darker side of the Los Angeles lifestyle, what happened to the city after the sun went down and the Beach Boys fans headed home. Next to Morrison, Manzarek was the most distinctive-looking band member, his glasses and wavy blond hair making him resemble a young English professor more than a rock star, a contrast to Morrison's Dionysian glamour - his sensuous mouth and long, dark hair. Musically, Manzarek's spidery organ on "Light My Fire" is one of the most instantly recognizable sounds in rock history. But he seemed up to finding the right touch for a wide range of songs - the sleepy, lounge-style keyboards on "Riders On the Storm"; the liquid strains for "The Crystal Ship"; the barrelhouse romps on "Roadhouse Blues." The Doors always considered themselves "more" than a rock band and Manzarek, Densmore and Krieger often managed a flowing rapport that blended rock, blues and jazz behind Morrison's self-consciously poetic lyrics. "There was no keyboard player on the planet more appropriate to support Jim Morrison's words," Densmore said in a statement. "Ray, I felt totally in sync with you musically. It was like we were of one mind, holding down the foundation for Robby and Jim to float on top of. I will miss my musical brother." The Doors were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993. Their records have been reissued frequently and the band was the subject of a 1991 Oliver Stone movie, "The Doors," starring Val Kilmer as Morrison and Kyle MacLachlan as Manzarek, who complained that the film stereotyped Morrison as a hopeless drunk and also omitted calmer, more humorous times. The Doors' fame has hardly faded even though they're one of the few groups not to allow their music to be used for commercials, a source of great tension among surviving members. Manzarek and Krieger reportedly supported licensing the songs, and Densmore has resisted. The group also feuded when Krieger and Manzarek formed a new group, Doors of the 21st Century. Densmore objected, and Krieger and Manzarek performed under various names. Other Doors albums included "The Soft Parade," ''Waiting for the Sun" and their last record with Morrison, "L.A. Woman." Manzarek briefly tried to hold the band together on the albums "Other Voices" and "Full Circle," neither of which had critical or commercial success. He played in other bands over the years, working with X and Iggy Pop among others. He also wrote a memoir, "Light My Fire," and a novel, "The Poet In Exile," in which he imagines receiving messages from a Morrison-like artist who had supposedly died. Born and raised in Chicago, Manzarek studied piano as a child and briefly considered a career in basketball. After graduating from DePauw University, he headed west to study film at UCLA. A few months after graduation, he and Morrison met in 1965 on Venice Beach in California. As Manzarek would often recall, Morrison read him some lyrics - Let's swim to the moon/Let's climb through the tide/Penetrate the evening that the/City sleeps to hide" - that became the start of "Moonlight Drive." "I'd never heard lyrics to a rock song like that before," Manzarek told Billboard in 1967. "We talked a while before we decided to get a group together and make a million dollars." By 1966, they had been joined by Krieger and Densmore and were a sensation live, especially during the theatrical, Oedipal epic, "The End." They were the house band at the famed Whisky a Go Go in Los Angeles before being signed by Elektra Records and releasing a self-titled album in 1967, one of the most talked-about debuts in rock history. "Well, to me, my God, for anybody who was there it means it was a fantastic time," Manzarek told The Republican in Massachusetts during an interview last year. "We thought we could actually change the world - to make it a more Christian, Islamic, Judaic Buddhist, Hindu, loving world. We thought we could. The children of the '50s post-war generation were actually in love with life and had opened the doors of perception. And we were in love with being alive and wanted to spread that love around the planet and make peace, love and harmony prevail upon earth, while getting stoned, dancing madly and having as much sex as you could possibly have." Manzarek is survived by his wife, Dorothy; his son Pablo and two brothers, Rick and James. Funeral arrangements are pending. http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2013/05/20/founding-member-doors-dies-at-74-publicist-says/ http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=bb6_1369140862 marypoppinsonheroin Ray Manzarek, founding member of The Doors, dies at 74, Ray Manzarek, the doors, Tue, 21 May 2013 08:46:05 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=4fd_1369140195 absolutdani After 2 years as a professional football player, this is the most important goal in his life. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=4fd_1369140195 absolutdani The most important goal in his whole life Goal, kid, chelsea, stadium, football Fri, 17 May 2013 15:56:10 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=1f2_1368820367 xmarcosx A five-year-old boy has become a global sensation after he was photographed stepping in to break up a heated row between his coach and the referee during a mini-league football match. When angry words broke out between a coach who took exception to the ref's decision during a game in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria -- young Alejandro Rodriguez Macias stepped in. "A fight started between the ref and the coach," said Alejandro. "So I put myself between them and said 'stop mister' and they moved apart." "I just wanted to play football," said the pint-sized player from the Unio Viera league. The moment he stepped between the two grown men and pushed them apart with his hands was captured on camera by a parent watching from the sidelines. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=1f2_1368820367 xmarcosx Spanish five-year-old boy breaks-up football row Boy, Soccer, Football, Fight, Spain Fri, 17 May 2013 10:31:46 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=a0c_1368800021 m16carbine How Qatar seized control of the Syrian revolution By Roula Khalaf and Abigail Fielding-Smith As the Arab world's bloodiest conflict grinds on, Qatar has emerged as a driving force: pouring in tens of millions of dollars to arm the rebels. Yet it also stands accused of dividing them - and of positioning itself for even greater influence in the post-Assad era. FT investigation by Roula Khalaf and Abigail Fielding-Smith A short drive from the rising skyscrapers of Doha's West Bay, emblems of the once-sleepy Qatari capital's frenetic growth, the three-starred flag of the Syrian revolution can be seen fluttering over a modern villa guarded by police cars. The villa is the new Syrian Arab Republic embassy in Qatar , representing not the regime of Bashar al-Assad , but opponents fighting for his removal. It is the only such embassy in the world, inaugurated by a Qatari minister two months ago with the usual diplomatic pomp, after hard lobbying by Qatar led the 22-member Arab League to hand over Syria's seat to the opposition. The diplomats working inside have recourse to neither a government nor a bureaucracy to serve Syrians abroad, lacking even the means to renew a passport. "Maybe soon," mutters a hopeful junior diplomat. But Qatar is not a country that allows details to get in the way of ambition. The opening of the embassy was a theatrical expression of this small, massively rich country's single-minded lurch into Syria's crisis . When it comes to backing Syria's rebels, no one can claim more credit than the gas-rich Gulf state. Whether in terms of armaments or financial support for dissidents, diplomatic manoeuvring or lobbying, Qatar has been in the lead, readily disgorging its gas-generated wealth in the pursuit of the downfall of Assad. Yet, as the Arab world's bloodiest uprising grinds on into its third year, Qatar finds itself pulled into a complicated and fractured conflict, the outcome of which has a decreasing ability to influence, while simultaneously becoming a high-profile scapegoat for participants on both sides. Among the Syrian regime's numerous but fragmented opponents the small Gulf state evokes a surprisingly ambivalent - and often overtly hostile - response. In the shell-blasted areas of rebel-held Syria, few appear to be aware of the vast sums that Qatar has contributed - estimated by rebel and diplomatic sources to be about $1bn, but put by people close to the Qatar government at as much as $3bn. However, a perception is taking root among growing numbers of Syrians that Qatar is using its financial muscle to develop networks of loyalty among rebels and set the stage for influence in a post-Assad era. "Qatar has a lot of money and buys everything with money, and it can put its fingerprints on it," says a rebel officer from the northern province of Idlib interviewed by the FT. Khalid al-Attiyah, Qatar's minister of state for foreign affairs, and the point man on Syria, dismisses this criticism as nothing more than noise. "We're a state, we're mature ... If we were concerned about what people say, we wouldn't be here today and Qatar wouldn't be as prosperous." But Qatar's role in Syria seems uncharacteristically prominent for a country that lacks the diplomatic experience and traditional heavyweight status of a more discreet Saudi Arabia. To some extent, the fact that Qatar is so exposed reflects the reluctance of western governments to intervene in Syria. However, for Qatar, Syria is also the culmination of an opportunistic foreign policy which saw Doha become the unlikely backer of other Arab revolts in north Africa - and a friend of those who emerge as winners, in most cases Islamists. Qatar's ruling family, the al-Thanis, have no ideological or religious affinity with the Islamists - they are simply not choosy about the beliefs held by useful friends. Qatar has supported the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Tunisia's Islamist al-Nahda party, which won the first elections after the popular revolts. Some politicians in the region believe the emir is trying to position himself as the "Islamist Abdel Nasser", as one Arab politician put it, referring to the late Egyptian president and the Arab world's only true pan-Arab leader. Most of Doha's neighbours in the Gulf are hostile to the Islamist trend in the region, but this is of little consequence to a state that takes pleasure in being contrarian. Nor are the al-Thanis embarrassed by the contradictions of an autocracy cheerleading for revolution. "The Qataris say if there's a tsunami coming your way you ride it, not let it hit you," says a western diplomat describing Qatar's attitude towards Islamists. It is this kind of dynamism and risk-taking at an executive level that has enabled Doha to act as a regional power only a few years after being a diplomatic nobody. But the military stalemate of the Syrian uprising, in which more than 70,000 people have died, has also revealed the recklessness and political impotence that ultimately undermine Qatar's objectives. "The Qataris are overextended - their system runs on a few people at the top, and there isn't much in terms of a bureaucracy," comments another diplomat. In the case of Syria, those key players have been the emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, his son and crown prince, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad, the prime minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim, plus Attiyah, the minister for foreign affairs. As the Qataris have attempted to unite the political opposition by championing the formation of the Syrian National Coalition (the main front) they have been accused of dividing it - just as their efforts to shape a fragmented rebel army into a more coherent form by helping to unify the brigades under one command have contributed to its incoherence. Not all of the criticism is fair. Partly it is driven by the irritation of many Arabs, at both state and street level, with what they see as an ambitious, nouveau riche state overreaching itself. "You can criticise them for hijacking the opposition but who else is helping?" acknowledges an independent-minded Syrian opposition member who, like many others in the region who were interviewed for this article, requested anonymity. But the disapproval levelled at Qatar is pervasive. A senior rebel commander who has dealt with the Qataris suggests that Doha should look long and hard at why its role has also sparked so much animosity. "After two years it is time for everyone involved in Syria to review their actions and engage in self-correction," he says. . . . For Sheikh Hamad, the 61-year-old emir who has ruled Qatar since 1995 after deposing his father, the road to Damascus has involved a spectacular U-turn. It wasn't long ago that Bashar al-Assad and his wife Asma were regular visitors to Doha, as guests of the emir and his second wife, Sheikha Moza. Qatari institutions were big investors in Syria, with a $5bn joint holding company set up in 2008 to develop everything from power stations to hotels. The emir also championed the international rehabilitation of Assad during his gradual ostracisation by the US, Europe and his Arab peers; Sheikh Hamad was instrumental in restoring Syrian relations with France in the years before the uprising, when he counted the former president Nicolas Sarkozy as a friend. Back then Syria was part of an alliance - with Iran and Lebanon's Hizbollah - that seemed on the ascendant, and Qatar, with typical pragmatism and opportunism, saw a chance to ride the wave as well as to moderate Assad's policies. When the Syrian revolt erupted in March 2011, Qatar, like Turkey, reacted cautiously; Al Jazeera, the Qatari-owned television channel, was criticised for downplaying the first protests. Behind the scenes, both the emir and crown prince Sheikh Tamim advised Assad against a military solution. But when prime minister Hamad bin Jassim went to visit Assad a month after the outbreak of protests, it became clear to Qatar that the Syrian hardman wanted "to kill people", as bin Jassim recently recalled at a Brookings Institution meeting. One person who influenced the emir's thinking at the time is Azmi Bishara , a prominent former Arab Israeli MP, exiled in Qatar (like many other Arab dissidents) after the Israeli government accused him of passing information to the Lebanese group Hizbollah during Israel's onslaught on Lebanon in 2006 - a charge Bishara denies. An adviser to the emir and the crown prince, Bishara has become something of a court intellectual in Doha. He is said to have been involved in the formation of the Syrian National Coalition, now the main opposition umbrella group, and to have been used to "test" opposition figures. He, too, had known Bashar al-Assad well, but then became an avid enthusiast of Arab revolts and the people's thirst for democracy. Writing in July 2011, Bishara said that Assad could have stayed in power had he led the reforms that people wanted: "The regime chose not to change, and so the people will change it." (Bishara was not available for comment.) Although the emir did not make his position public until Saudi Arabia broke its silence over Syria in August 2011, the conviction took hold in Qatar throughout that bloody first summer that Syria's was as much a revolution as anywhere else in the region. Following the pattern of the other Arab uprisings, Qatar's instinct was to bet on the opposition. In January 2012, the emir told a US television network that Arab troops should be sent to Syria "to stop the killings". Doha's leaders were particularly emboldened by the revolt in Libya, where Qatar had played the lead Arab role in the Nato-led intervention. Although they knew that Assad's downfall would not be as easy as Muammer Gaddafi's, they expected western partners would eventually step in on the side of the opposition. One senior Qatari official suggested in late 2012 that Syria would go the way of Libya, but over a much longer term. Assad's removal, after all, served the strategic purpose of weakening Iran, his closest regional ally. So far at least, this gamble has proved a miscalculation. "We didn't want to take the lead. We begged a lot of countries to start to take the lead and we'll be in the back seat. But we find ourselves in the front seat," lamented prime minister bin Jassim recently. Even within the Arab world, Qatar found much stronger resistance to action than was the case with Libya. "Before we get disappointed by the west, we should ask ourselves as an Arab nation what we've done - it is an Arab issue in the first place," says Attiyah, the minister for foreign affairs. In the years before the Arab uprisings, Qatar had cultivated its role as a mediator, capable of talking to all sides on the divisions that polarised the Middle East. It hosted the US's biggest military air base in the region, while maintaining cordial relations with Iran; it held contacts with Israel while simultaneously backing the Palestinian group Hamas and Lebanon's Hizbollah. On Syria, Qatar soon emerged as one of the few angry voices at Arab summits, pushing for a tougher line. "In Syria, Qatar became an active protagonist," says a western diplomat. Having worked to become a kind of Norway of the Gulf, he adds, it also wanted to be "the Gulf version of the UK and France, and you can't be both at the same time". . . . Ahfad al-Rasoul is a source of envy among other brigades fighting in Syria. A relatively new player put together from several fighting groups, it is often linked to the gas riches of Qatar. Ahfad al-Rasoul is one of the few fighting coalitions in Syria that can be considered "effective", boasts Khaled, a smartly dressed, laptop-carrying "liaison" officer for the group, interviewed by the FT in southern Turkey, near the Syrian border. Not so, says Abu Samer, a commander from a rival group, who complains about shortages of weapons and ammunition. "If I was getting 15 per cent of what they're getting, I'd do a lot," he grumbles. Though Khaled insists his battalion's good fortunes are thanks to a mix of funding sources, others such as Abu Samer see the hand of Qatar at work. Supporting the armed rebellion was the inevitable next stage of Qatar's deepening involvement in Syria. By early 2012, as peaceful protests gave way to an armed opposition, Qatar was scouring around for light weaponry, buying arms in Libya and in eastern European states, and flying them to Turkey, where intelligence services helped deliver them across the border. At first, say people with direct knowledge of the arms shipments, Qatar worked through Turkish intelligence to identify recipients, and then, as Saudi Arabia joined the covert military effort, through Lebanese mediators. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which tracks arms transfers, says that between April 2012 and March this year, more than 70 military cargo flights from Qatar landed in Turkey. Elizabeth O'Bagy, an analyst at the US Institute for the Study of War, which has published extensive studies of Syria's fragmented rebel movement, says that as the conflict progressed, the Qataris worked through members of the exiled Muslim Brotherhood to identify rebel factions that should be supported. For example, she says, that is how they linked up with the Farouq brigades, one of the largest and more mainstream factions. Meanwhile, opposition sources say the Qataris have also sent their own special forces to find insurgent groups, and people involved in the weapons business say a Qatari general has been the point man on arms deliveries, travelling to the "operations" room that was set up first in Istanbul and then in Ankara. However, it is difficult to point to rebel brigades that are exclusively Qatari-funded or backed. Ahfad al-Rasoul, for example, is also thought to be receiving support from Saudi Arabia. Equally, the erratic and limited nature of weapons shipments means that even recipients of Qatari support are not always aware of Doha's role. Mahmoud Marrouch, a young fighter from Liwaa al-Tawhid, the rural Aleppo group that is believed to have been a major recipient of Qatari arms, says Qatar is like the rest of the world - promising weapons but not delivering. What the fighters have, he says, was seized from regime bases, or purchased on the black market. "The Qataris and the Saudis need a green light from America to help us," he adds. A rebel leader in the northern Aleppo province, who works with Liwaa al-Tawhid, says he has also received a Saudi intermediary who goes around rebel-held areas distributing funds. "Groups get funding from both Qatar and Saudi Arabia and they deceive sponsors sometimes," comments O'Bagy. Indeed, if Qatar is, as its detractors say, seeking to build up a proxy force in Syria to implement its regional agenda, it is doing so in an environment which is not conducive to either loyalty or cohesion. With so many different outside sources of sponsorship and no stable organisational structures, rebel groups lurch from alliance to alliance and continually rebrand themselves in the search for support. Ironically, although the relationship between Riyadh and Doha has long been characterised by mutual suspicion, in many ways they have worked very closely on Syria. However, a crucial division over the Muslim Brotherhood has undoubtedly led to the pursuit of divergent agendas on the Syrian battlefield, with harmful consequences for an opposition in desperate need of unity. For the Saudis, the handful of secular rebel factions, plus the Salafi groups that espouse a stricter Wahabi Islam practised in Saudi Arabia, are vastly preferable to the Brotherhood, a more organised political group and therefore a greater political threat. "The Saudis say 'No to the Brotherhood,'" says Riad al-Shaqfa, the leader of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood. Qataris, on the other hand, are "playing a positive role", though Shaqfa insists that his group's funding is from its own members, not from Doha. Khalid al-Attiyah denies any tensions with Saudi Arabia, saying co-operation is much closer than people assume, with daily consultations. However, rebel sources and analysts say that by September last year, the rivalry had intensified to the point where the Qataris and Saudis were creating separate military alliances and structures. As complaints poured in from opposition leaders and western officials, the two states agreed to bring the structures together under the supreme military command, headed by the western-backed general Selim Idriss . However, commanders who work with Idriss say that neither country is following through with its promise to bolster the supreme military command, instead continuing to work independently. One reason could be that the Gulf states worry that their limited supplies would be distributed too broadly by the supreme command, instead of reaching only the most effective factions. But the behaviour has bred resentment. "Qatar and Saudi Arabia ... are playing out their rivalries here, they are dividing people," says Abdul Jabbar Akaidi, the head of the Aleppo revolutionary military council. Speaking from one of his bases on the Syrian side of the border with Turkey, he adds: "People will remember those who gave without having an agenda. The Syrians are clever, they know when there is an agenda." . . . By late 2012 a new factor was emerging in Syria, one that had the potential to complicate Qatar's relationship with the west. The extremist group Jabhat al-Nusrah was gaining ground, playing a prominent role in dislodging the regime from military facilities in northern Syria. In December, the US felt sufficiently alarmed to add Nusrah to its global terrorist list. Concerned that Qatar's level of tolerance for radical Islamists was higher than theirs, western governments also wanted safeguards in place to ensure that weapons did not end up in the hands of jihadi groups like Nusrah. The problem, says one former senior US official, was that "the Qataris felt it didn't matter who you give to, what's important is to bring down Bashar." According to him, the objective in Washington became "to keep the Qataris from doing whatever they want". So the US instituted a "consultative process". Two "operations" rooms that oversee weapons deliveries were set up, one in Turkey, the other, more recently, in Jordan. They include representatives from nearly a dozen countries. The Qataris, says the former US official, were co-operative. Yet allegations that the Qataris have - directly or indirectly - helped Jabhat al-Nusrah have not gone away. At least one Arab government recently said as much, although experts on jihadi movements say the extremist group's funding comes from al-Qaeda in Iraq and from private donors in the Gulf, not from governments. Yet even with the "consultative process" in place, leakage might be inevitable, whether through the funding of rebels or through the massive charitable contributions from the Gulf that reach Syria. "Because the Free Syrian Army groups work so closely with non-FSA groups these weapons are spreading just because they are fighting side by side - and maybe the groups trade arms with each other as well," says Eliot Higgins, who examines and records weapons used in the Syrian conflict on his well-followed Brown Moses blog. Attiyah says Doha has never backed Nusrah, and blames the international community's inaction on Syria for allowing it to flourish. "Is it the Security Council's delay in taking a firm resolution against Bashar al-Assad and his regime that has made emerge? In my opinion, yes," he says. Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim, the prime minister, is even more dismissive of allegations of Qatari support for extremists, joking in his Brookings presentation that such rumours are spread by jealous neighbours to tease Qatar. Beneath the quips, however, are signs that Qatar's influence over military supplies to the rebellion may be waning, as its role in weapons deliveries takes second place to that of Saudi Arabia. Riyadh has more developed networks to source weapons and it has been working closely with Jordan to bolster rebel groups in southern Syria that are not tied to Nusrah. . . . Many Syrians have probably never heard of Mustafa Sabbagh, though he is considered the most powerful man in the political opposition. The owner of a building material and contracting company, the 48-year-old secretary-general of the National Coalition lived in Saudi Arabia for much of the past decade. He doesn't make many speeches, or issue statements, but he does oversee the coalition's budget, to which the Qataris are the biggest donors, and is responsible, as one western official says, "for writing the cheques". While seen by both friends and detractors as a shrewd man who appealed to Qatar officials' business-minded attitude, Sabbagh has come under criticism for supposedly using his position to control the opposition and further Qatari influence. Tensions between him and some of the secular members of the coalition exploded into the open recently after the controversial election of an interim prime minister, Ghassan Hitto , in March. The row over Hitto's appointment was so bitter it caused tension between Qatar and Saudi Arabia and pushed the Saudis to become more active in opposition politics, which they had largely left to the Qataris. According to pro-Saudi opposition figures, negotiations are now under way to resolve the dispute. Qatar's involvement with Syria's political opposition has generated even more controversy than its support of rebel groups. The dissidents are a fractious assortment of cliques, but they play an important role in shaping international policy. While it was Turkey that helped form the first credible opposition umbrella group, the Syrian National Council , in August 2011, Qatar quickly embraced it and contributed to its funding. The SNC, however, fell victim to infighting, which gave the Muslim Brotherhood, the only organised bloc within it, the greatest influence. As secular voices began dropping out of the SNC, western nations, led by the US, pressured the Qataris to help form a broader opposition based on an initiative proposed by Riad Seif, a well-respected Syrian dissident. The new body, the National Coalition, was announced in Doha in November 2012. It was no secret that Qatari officials were less convinced of the need to improve the SNC. Their view appeared to be that dominance of the Muslim Brotherhood was neither as great as claimed, nor an issue. A former US official who tracked the process of the creation of the coalition said dealing with the Qataris at the time was like a "war of attrition". However, claims of Qatari dominance of the opposition persisted, even after the coalition was created. True, the Muslim Brotherhood was no longer the main component, but a new bloc of more than a dozen members, brought in by Sabbagh as representatives of local communities in Syria, sparked new disagreements. It was seen as another bloc that was loyal to Qatar. Each of these members was supposed to represent a local council in Syria's different provinces, and together the councils received $8m from Qatar soon after the formation of the coalition. Qatar was also the first - and possibly the only - country to provide funding for the coalition budget, to the tune of $20m, and it delivered the first $10m out of a pledged $100m package for the organisation's new humanitarian assistance unit. In an interview with the FT, Sabbagh said that the Qatar label that has stuck to him is inaccurate and unfair. Peppering his words with praise for Saudi Arabia's contribution to the Syrian cause, he says his relationship with Qatar is confined to what he calls "logistics" support for a business forum that he founded after the revolt against Assad broke out. The forum had mobilised funds from merchants inside and outside Syria to support the Free Syrian Army. Sabbagh insists that the representatives of local councils that he invited into the coalition were an attempt, even if imperfect, to raise the representation of people inside the country in the main opposition front. "It's inevitable because there are no elections. It was an experience that needed maturing," he says. Attiyah, meanwhile, says he has no closer relationship with Sabbagh than anyone else in the coalition. He also points out that the coalition with its various components, including the local representatives, was not created by Qatar alone but with the help and blessing of Arab and western officials. . . . In Syria itself, the number of dead continues to rise and Bashar al-Assad is still stubbornly clinging on to power. Whether Qatar's venture into Syrian opposition politics will have any returns will depend on whether Syria survives as a country - something that is by no means assured. Perhaps for the Qatari emir, the demise of Assad will be sufficient satisfaction. In theory, Qatar could also emerge with multiple points of influence through Islamists and loyal brigades. But it has already created many enemies inside Syria, and not just among pro-regime supporters. So torn apart is the fabric of Syria's society, and so radicalised and suspicious its battered population, that the Qataris are more likely to find that they are neither thanked - nor even wanted - there. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=a0c_1368800021 m16carbine How Qatar seized control of the Syrian revolution syra, syrian civil war, qatar