Eyewitness TV Interview Goes BOOM! Heads Up For Flying Manhole Cover

Look carefully: That's a manhole
cover rocketing skyward behind this
man who was being interviewed on TV.  

Sunday afternoon, an underground electrical fire in downtown Buffalo, New York set off a few explosions, local television station WGRZ reports. 

A couple buildings were evacuated as crews got the fire under control and the electric utility came to cut power as a precaution, then to restore power after the fire was out.

However, it turns out manhole covers can be very mobile in certain situations. I didn't know they could do this

WGRZ was interviewing a building manager who evacuated people because of the fire, when this happened:

Homeless Guy Sees Piano On Sidewalk; Plays It: Result: Beauty

Maybe he doesn't look like he belongs in
Symphony Hall, but this guy can sure play the piano.  

There's been a mini-trend, especially in Canada, of arts groups placing old pianos in public places in cities and inviting people to stop and play them.

Such is the case in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, where a homeless guy named Ryan stumbled upon one of the pianos in a park and started playing.

An organization called #OpenPianoYeg put the pianos in the streets. Founder David Rauch told the CBC: "I want really great people to play. I want really bad people to play,"

I do like the idea of putting random pianos in public places. I think they can be soothing, given the right circumstances.

Ryan apparently never had piano lessons, he's just able to play.

He also proves that you never know where you'll find talent.

See and hear for yourself:

Best Roman Catholic Nun EVER Rocks "The Voice"

Some of you might be old enough to remember that strange 1960s show, "The Flying Nun"    

Sister Cristina Scuccia knocks it out of the park
in Italy's version of "The Voice."  

I've got something better for you and it's (mostly) reality: The Singing Nun.  And it's a lot of fun. And surprising.

I'm a sucker for some of those competitive "reality" talent shows and my favorite is "The Voice" 

During the audition rounds, four celebrity judges, all singers and musicians sit in big chairs and listen to contestants perform with their backs to the performer, so the appearance of the singer doesn't influence their decisions.

If the judges like what they hear, they push a big button on their chair, their chair swings around 180 degrees and they get to see what the performer they enjoyed looks like.

Many nations have their own The Voice franchise, including Italy.

This week, all four judges on the Italian "The Voice" LOVED want a performance of Alicia Keys' "No One" as done by a 25 year old women.

All four judges hit their buttons, their chairs swung around and there was the performer, Sister Cristina Scuccia, a Roman Catholic nun. 

When more than one singer turns around, the contestant has to choose which singer will be her coach, to help with future battle rounds and face offs as the ultimate winner is chosen.

Sister Scuccia chose J-Ax, an Italian rapper to coach her, because he was the first to turn his chair around

J-Ax was visibly moved by Sister Scruccia and the fact that she chose him. He said: "If I had found you at Mass I would always be in church. You and me are like the devil and holy water."

I bet even Pope Francis really enjoyed this. Her performance certainly fits in with the Pope's outreach, in making Catholicism relatable to everybody and not just some rich, robed dudes being weird and pompous in the Vatican.

News of Sister Cristina Scuccia's success is going viral today, big time, so we haven't heard the last from her.

Here's the really fun video of the event. It's in Italian, of course, except for the song. But the language is no barrier to understand what is going on:

Is Kai, The Wild Hitchhiker and Best News Interview Subject Ever, Also A Murderer?

Back in February, I wrote about a guy who said his named is Kai, who was interviewed on a local news station after subduing a hatchet wielding assailant. The assailant was threatening other people near Fresno, Calif. and Kai managed to stop the assault.

This guy became an Internet celebrity in February.
Is he a murderer too?  

It was one of the most delicious, fun news interviews ever, and it was a joy to feature him in this blog thing. 

Kai seemed like such a mellow dude, even if his storytelling style was animated to say the least. (You've got to watch the video again in that February post)

But people surprise you. WABC-TV in New York says Kai is now wanted in the murder of a New Jersey man. 

Of course we don't know for sure yet if he actually did anything like that, but WABC says police are on the lookout for Kai, whose real name is Caleb Lawrence McGillvary.

According to WABC, McKillvary is McGillvary is "homeless but considers himself "homefree" and relies on the generosity of strangers for food, lodging and transportation."

The infamous Kai interview from February went super viral and he became one of those major accidental Internet celebrities who are quickly forgotten about, except in some future Trivial Pursuit games.

"Kai" is  accused of killing a guy named Joseph Galfy, Jr. in Clark, N.J., who was found dead in his home.

Somehow, if Kai is caught, I doubt if he will give another super animated interview about the accusations against him.

But you never know.

Police Chase With An Interesting Twist

Stay with the video in this post, even though it starts with the standard issue video of somebody's television screen showing a standard issue police chase on standard issue California boulevards.

Things take a unique turn as you watch.  So, watch!

 

"Sign Spinners" Prove There's a Vocation For Everyone

While looking at Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish blog last night, I noticed he featured the video, at the bottom of this post, of someone called a sign spinner.

I did a little digging out of idle curiosity and discovered sign spinning is a Big Thing. I had no idea.

A sign spinner in Times Square

Apparently, there's a huge industry that has people learn how to do all kinds of acrobating tricks while holding a sign. They're hired by businesses who want to attract the attention of passing motorists.

You can even go on line to something called signspinners.org to either hire a spinner or get a job as one.

There are so many industries in this world I had no idea existed, I tell ya.

They're cool to watch, but I wonder how much local zoning boards appreciate sign spinners. They're certainly a distraction to drivers. I wonder if they cause crashes? And if so, who gets sued? The inattentive driver or the sign spinner who made him so? Or the business that hired the spinner? All of the above?

As is always the case with every phenomenon or hobby or occupation,  there is even a big competition for sign spinners.   It's the Aarrow World Sign Spinning Championship, coming up soon!  Feb. 10-12 in Las Vegas, in case you're interested in going or competing. Yes, they spell "arrow" with two A's.

So anyway, the cool sign spinner video is below. Turn down the volume, the music may not be to your liking. And be patient. The first few seconds are kinda slow. And ignore the random dancer that invades. This is still huge fun: