A good Wednesday to you, dear reader. We have compiled some information that may prove helpful to you as you embark upon your day.
1. Scott Stapp is on board with Panthers’ “Creedbombing.” Ridiculing Creed frontman Scott Stapp was once so easy and enjoyable. The voice. The subliminal Christian messages. The butt-rock aesthetic. But his public meltdown in 2014 has taken almost all the fun out of it. Until now?
Last week, the Charlotte Observerpublished a short Carolina Panthers locker-room story about “Creedbombing,” an inside joke dreamed up by Panthers backup linebacker Ben Jacobs. Among its revelations:
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Taken from the term photobombing where one spoils a picture by unexpectedly appearing in the frame, Creedbombing is belting out a lyric by the popular ’90s band Creed when no one is ready for it.
“Hold me now! I’m 6 feet from the edge and I’m thinking,” Jacobs sang Wednesday as he walked onto the practice field, a lyric from Creed’s song “One Last Breath.”
“The key is you’ve got to make really deep, direct eye contact,” Jacobs said. “So if you Creedbomb someone you’ve got to look them directly in the eye.”
Here’s some Creedbombing footage:
The paper followed up the story yesterday with an interview with Stapp.
When he first read about Creedbombing in an Observer online story, he felt honored.
“Like, are you serious? This is so cool,” Stapp said. “And I just felt like, hey man, there are Creed fans on the Panthers?”
But then he took a step back and realized how funny it is to look directly into someone’s eyes and unleash a Creed lyric out of nowhere.
“I just started dying laughing,” Stapp said. “And then the next thing you know, my band is doing it to me out on tour. And I saw the humor in it and saw how funny it was. I think it’s awesome.”
Stapp also said: “The fact that Creed is still in the conversation 20 years later I think speaks for volumes for how the music has impacted people…I think some of my personal struggles contributed to some of the criticism, and rightfully so. But I think the music on its own has, so far, stood the test of time. It’s still showing its impact on pop culture 20 years later.” I guess, technically, sort of?
2. More luxury condos coming to the Triangle. So says the Triangle Business Journal:
Atlanta-based Pollack Shores Real Estate Group has plans to build two upscale apartment communities: one in Raleigh; the other near Research Triangle Park.
Near RTP, the group plans to build a 330-unit multifamily complex at the corner of Davis Drive and Hopson Road. The Raleigh project, named “The Dakota,” will have 314 units and will be located at Nowell Road and Conference Drive in west Raleigh, beside the Wells Fargo mortgage operations center. Both will open in 2017.
Good thing there are no drawbacks at all to overbuilding upscale residential projects. Oh, wait.
3. McCrory touts new jobs numbers. The North Carolina Department of Commerce’s Labor and Economic Analysis Division has released its monthly labor report. The jobless rate dipped slightly in December — from 5.7 percent to 5.6 percent — but is up from December 2014, when it was 5.4 percent. N.C. Gov. Pat McCrory issued a release stating: “Since I entered office, North Carolina has added more than 260,000 jobs – the 6th most of any state in the nation.” The gov added that he has overseen the 10th-largest decrease in the unemployment rate in the country.
Not everybody is beaming so brightly about the new numbers. From the Observer‘s story on the report:
“The national unemployment rate is down from a year ago, while North Carolina’s rate is higher,” said East Carolina University economist James Kleckley. “If you take the change at face value, North Carolina is not creating enough jobs for the people who want them.”
4. N.C. GOP wasting a bunch of taxpayer money on lawyers because it’s scared of Roy Cooper. Missed this excellent dig from WRAL on Monday. The nut:
Since Republicans took the helm of the North Carolina legislature in 2011, financial data show state lawmakers have racked up almost $7 million in legal bills through October 2015. Gov. Pat McCrory shelled out another $1.3 million for private lawyers in the years since he was elected in 2013, half of which was tied up in a dispute with fellow Republicans.
The amount dwarfs spending on outside counsel by any governor or legislature in the last 15 years.
Why have state lawmakers spent 17 times more for private lawyers in the last five years than they did in the previous 10 years? Because Attorney General (and gubernatorial candidate) Roy Cooper’s open criticism of bad policy passed by the Legislature has bred “skepticism among GOP leaders about Cooper’s ability to defend the state against a slew of lawsuits challenging their new measures.” As an example, because Cooper refused to defend the state’s gay marriage ban (after a federal appeals court in Virginia ruled that such bans were unconstitutional), Republican lawmakers gave $102,000 of our money to lawyers to enforce it. Nice vision, N.C. GOP!
5. On the national tip. Donald Trump will skip Thursday’s Fox News debate because of that time Megyn Kelly asked him a question about calling women things like dogs and pigs. Ammon Bundy and others occupying an Oregon wildlife refuge were arrested late last night, and one man was killed in a gunfire exchange with the feds. Kanye West changed the name of his new album from Swish (which is a great title) to Waves (which is less good). And who wants to bet this New York Times story on #freethenipple will shatter Gray Lady traffic records? I definitely clicked on it immediately!
You’re all set for the watercolor. Go forth.
