Torch Heads To San Fransisco

In Related News: Hasbro reports record sales of Super Soakers in Northern California...

After disruptive pro-Tibetan protest in London and Paris over the past two days, the Olympic torch lands in San Fransisco. Um, ew...

And as it travels the world the torch is consistently and aggressively interrupted by activist... Altogether unable to finish it's marathon in Paris... And at one or more points was even extinguished... For many this torch represents genocide, and a chance to send a very clear message to China.

(Um... We're all about the activism, but jumping on a girl in a wheelchair... seems low... even for us.)

Look out for huge protests in San Fransisco today... Keep an eye open for blog reports of aggressive/oppressive police actions that might not make the main stream 6 O'clock news... And be sure to check out important local activist groups around Philly, such as, Shut The Duck Up.

Written by Conrad Benner

Related Story: Boycott Beijing

Bear Panic In Subway

... J/K, unlike our local news, we're not going to use scare tactics to keep you out of the subway... Although, seriously, I'm not going down there...

Subway Bear makes street art cute again! First capturing our hearts when we saw him on Wooster Collective. Subway Bear reminds us that ugly graffiti isn't the only way to make a statement on the streets.

Watch artist Joshua Allen Harris' video to see Subway Bear in all his glorious cuteness...

Written by Conrad Benner, Photos from Wooster Collective

P.s. Congratulations, if you thought, “that's what she said,” at the second sentence of this post, you may have just found you're new favorite podcast.

Philebutards Beware

...As a blog, we here at Ugh News have often hinted or alluded to a cretin type of person, with the overwhelming assumption that we were all on the same page. While never actually pointing any... well, let's say phingers...

Yeah, that shit's over.

(Thumbs up in drunk photograph = "I have been with less then two women, and she/he is one of them.")

With an alarming influx of flaccid nightlife photog blogs, comes an equally yawn-inducing influx of people, whom we here at Ugh News are coming to call,“Philebutards.” (Aka people whom live in Philly, think they are well known, act as such at bars and DJ nights, then loom in front of the nearest photog awaiting their newest default photo.) And we plan to bring them to social justice.

If you are obnoxious enough to be one of these people, beware. You will be made fun of... (Unless, that is of course... you don't alway look like you just biked from South Philly, are a good dancer, or if you dress cute, or if we like your hair/shoes/or nails, or if you're our friend.) Yeah, so watch out bitches.

And because it's pretty obvious who we are alluding to, let's begin with Philebrity, and their photog's sister or girlfriend or something...

(Yet another example of how American Apparel has style fucked our generation. Hoodies at bars = insecure girls looking for an easy out, and girls who look like they've biked from South Philly everywhere.)

While there were some cuties...

(Cute foursome who look over 30; Cute bathroom; Cute everything.)

We were really surprised by the amount of photos of that same girl. (Is she in a band or something?) Whatever, she has good skin, but seriously, either Phiberity's new photog shoots from a very heavy tripod in the conner of bars or they've thrown in the towel choosing to view their only competition as DigPhilly.com (Which we think they might have done.)

(DigPhilly.com photos = Us one step closer to becoming Ugh News Portland.)

Either way, let's thank them for helping us create our (already) new favorite word/new Ugh News series: Philebutards

Written by Conrad Benner, Photos from... um, were you reading the article?

Boycott Beijing

... because it's the American thing to do... Kinda.

Trillions of dollars are being spent on a war that, as of recently, has been sold as an Iraqi liberation war. So... We're America, we do the right thing. When we see injustice, we inject diplomacy. When injustice persists, we persist. So...

How can we spend two (or more) full generations of tax dollars on a war for liberation in one country, then stumble to recognize a real chance to supply political pressure to a country that is sponsoring the genocides in Darfur and the oppression of Tibet?

(Photos from the recent riots in Tibet)

You don't have to be a political expert to see the flaw in our American ideals there. Or to see that China is wildly committing human rights crimes. And that this couldn't be a more perfect opportunity for the “free” world to say no to China and no to oppression.

Think about that word, liberation... Who really needs it?... Who has it?

Well, about two weeks after the riots in Lhasa that reminded the world of China's crimes... the Beijing Olympics unofficially started. Lighting the Olympic torch in Tiananmen Square today (yeah, that Tiananmen Square) to begin it's 20 day journey around the world.

Dozens of protest are expected, the torch only coming to America once to San Fransisco where of course, huge protest are planned. Ugh...

First came lead in Barbie dolls, now lead in millions of human beings, when did America stop doing the right thing?... or was it always about money? Double Ugh...

For more info check out, freetibet.org

Ugh News Update (4/2/08):
Does Nancy Pelosi read Ugh News?!? (We totally think so.)
Today she jumped on the boycott bandwagon... and pleads for U.S. officials, like President Bush, to sit out the opening and closing ceremonies.

We fucking LOVE Madame Speaker Pelosi!!!

Ugh News Update II (4/3/08):
There is some fantastic incite from a political science major who specializes in Asian history in the comments section... These are exactly the kinds of conversations Ugh News was created to explore. Check it out!

Written by Conrad Benner, Photos from saledargento and Tibetanstar

How U Know: You're 'Friends' With Too Many DJs On MySpace

... We have a feeling this might take us off some "lists," if we were ever on any...

#7. You laughed-out-loud, literally, when you read that headline.

#6. You're constantly missing your friend's funny cats YouTube bulletins. (Which, are usually actually pretty funny, despite their predictable-ness.) To see the same bulletin, inviting you to the same bar you always go to, posted 8 times in a row.

#5. You're starting to believe that TONIGHT is spelled TONITE and sometimes 2NITE.

#4. You're not even sure what “listings” are for, you always know what's going on... ALWAYS.

#3. You've trained yourself to only read bulletins THAT DON'T /// LOOK LIKE + THIS !!! @ EVER !!!

#2. You get excited to see a friend has left you a “new comment.” You think to yourself, oh, maybe it's a hilarious joke you shared with your good friend last night, and she's posted an equally hilarious reminder... Oh, wait, it's just DJ 'Shit Yo Pants' inviting you to his new Techno Rave 90's Flashback night at Level Club. Bummer. You'll probably go, but you wish a real person would comment you sometimes. :.(

#1. Finally... You just quit your shit and joined Facebook.

Written by Conrad Benner

Is McCain Turning Pennsylvania Red?

... Um... Is it just me, or, was he kind of hot when he was young...

The Answer: Yes, He Is... Maybe...

As infuriating as it is for me to write that headline, and it is, the latest polls suggest that the fight for PA will far outlast the Obama/Clinton squabble for the Democratic nomination. Thrusting our state into the national spotlight again this coming fall for the general election where the numbers are red hot. And I am too.

Still fussing over Obama vs. Clinton? Well stop... It's Obama stupid. And that's not just my (proudly basis) opinion, data from the latest Rasmussen Report gives Clinton only a 19.9% chance of being able to clinch the nomination... or Bill's balls... sorry, I had to go there. (Which, incidentally, is probably the same percent chance that you'll continue reading this article if your a Hillary supporter.)

Even more alarming however is when the Report specifically talks about PA in the general election, where right now McCain is polling at 44% to Obama's 43%. Yikes.

The point is... it's still way early. I think McCain is polling favorably because both Clinton and Obama are receiving huge amounts of negative press while McCain is pretty much laying low. Also, Danity Cane just released a new album, so there might have been some confusion with the polling there. Either way, this seems all the more reason for the Democratic party to pick someone already! Or, more honestly, for Hillary to step down.

Hey, maybe Nancy Pelosi will run in 2016 and we can have our first African-American President followed by our first woman!

(P.s. The color of this article was not a mistake... We're Staying Blue.)

Ugh News Update:

Hilarious Onion News "Diebold Accidentally Leaks Results Of 08 Election"

Written by Conrad Benner

Yael Naim PWND Toxic

... and I'm not going to lie, I had to use Urban Dictionary to double-make-sure PWND meant what I thought it did.

Probably better known as 'that girl who sings that song in that Macbook Air commercial'; Yael Naim takes Britney Spears' Toxic and flexes it into a pretty powerful vocal.

By the way 'that song,' the one Yael sings in the the Mac commercial is called “New Soul.” And it helped launch Ms. Naim into the first Israeli solo artist to have a Top 10 hit in the U.S. (or at least that's what I heard on NPR's Day to Day.)

“It started as a joke,” she continued in the Day to Day interview. However, it ended up something a little more serious. Which is funny because that's kind of the flip/reverse of Spears' career. Which started something a little more serious but is now a joke.

Here's the video...

Written by Conrad Benner

I Can Teach You How To Do It

No words needed... One of my favorite blogs... One of my favorite cities... It's all about the photos...

Meet GeeJ, Barcelona, and icanteachyouhowtodoit.com...

Conrad: Hey GeeJ, could you please explain to my people what it is you do...

Gerard: Well, My name is Gerard Estadella, also known as GeeJ. DJ and Photographer media hyped as the "Spanish Cobrasnake," thanks to my webpage icanteachyouhowtodoit.com.

I also work as a freelance PR and fashion photographer for lots of Spanish and overseas magazines.

C: Ok, tell us about your site, how'd you get into it?

G: I started 4 years ago when I decided to start my own blog. In which I explained my day-by-day life and put some pictures I took with my shitty digital camera to get a better idea of what I was trying to explain. It started just as a blog for my friends who wanted to know where I was and how I was doing because back then I used to DJ a lot around Spain and had my own electroclash band and we were touring the country every now and then.

One day, after 1 month without updating it, I had too many photos and no time to write at all so I decided to just upload the photos... What was my surprise when I saw that the website counter jumped heavily and unexpectedly. That's when I decided to just upload photos.

After a while and when blogspot was not big enough for me and also when I bought my new reflex camera I decided to make it a dot-com website. That was probably a year and a half ago.. and since then every thing's just been crazy.

C: What makes the night life in Barcelona so great?

G: I love that my people are in it. I have friends who are promoters, club owners, performers, DJs... It's all like a small family where we all know each other. Also Barcelona has a big indie-underground thing going on. If you know how to avoid the house music venues you can easily get yourself in some pure roc, electro noise venue which you'll love it.

Also Barcelona is a very open minded city and every single non-gay club has a mixed audience and that makes things even more interesting. We're a unique European flavored city next to the sea that reflects on the people who live here, visit the city or just moved from around the world to live here.

C: Since I've been checking out your site I've noticed how much it is updated and how the photos and style never suffer. First of all, you must live with a camera strapped to you, right? And secondly, what's your "motivation"?

G: Yeah, I do live with my camera as my third hand... but I'm used to it now and I really like it.

My motivation has always and will always be learning. Everyday you learn new things and in that case about photography, lights and stuff like that. I really enjoy what I do and right now what I've accomplished with it really makes it worth it.

C: Your creating a sort of celebrity culture, shooting the same dozen or so kids a every party and in your photo shoots. Are these just your friends or the kids who go out the most or what?

G: The people who are flashed by me are usually my gang. I wouldn't say it's an entourage but some kids will definitely love to be called like that. I take photos of what surrounds me and the people in it. That's why some people are almost in every update of the week. I try to take photos of foreign and unknown people, just because it makes it more interesting for the audience of the website. But some days I don't feel that social myself and just go for "my" people. And I'm aware that people all around the world are starting to know them. There's even forums in the Vogue.com page talking about some of them... It's just so random that me, and anyone in my position, is able to create i-celebrities out of nothing. I'm starting to get phone calls of production companies because they want some specific person that they saw on my page to be featured in a TV ad, magazine fashion editorial or campaign.... soooo scary.

C: Soooo... What are you teaching us to do?

G: Nothing, absolutely nothing. the name is random picked with no second intention in it...

I get loads of e-mails of haters, saying "what can you teach me, huh?" I'll just say.. If you like the page and the photos, go check it out and enjoy them... If you don't... There's billions of other websites to go... Just don't bother me.

C: Have a good Barcelona story?

G: Hmmm ... The latest unexpected thing was when in carnival, (a Halloween kind of holiday that we have here,) I got in a bus to go downtown. There was 2 girls dressed up as Cory Kennedy and Kate Moss... not that you could tell by their looks, but they were loud enough to let everyone know they were having fun and what they were dressed as. The thing is that I entered sat down 2 rows behind them and just listened to what they said. One of them was calling her friends to let them know the plans for that night and the conversation went as follows:

"oh, yeah, I'm Kate, she's Cory Kennedy, you're gonna be Nicole Richie and your friends will be Paris and Lindsay... I think we should call the boys so one of them dresses up as The Cobrasnake or the icanteachyouhowtodoit"

uh-mazing.

C: What's next for the site? Maybe traveling to other cities, maybe Philadelphia?

G: Right now I'm trying to get an official sponsor for it. I don't wanna put banners in the site.. It's independent and banners take out all the credibility of it. It's pop-up free, easy to surf and "what you see is what you get". When I get that my intention is to start traveling around... the States, Europe and hopefully Asia... So... when in the states, I'll try to make it to Philly ;)

Interview by Conrad Benner