No, I didn’t go to Kenmore square last night. It was to cold/late/crowded for me to go, so I just set and saw it on TV, forcing my wife to stay awake with me and watching the Red Sox celebrate their rightful earned victory.
It’s been told more then once lately, that it is an exiting time to be a sports fan here in New England. The Patriots are kicking ass, the Bruins and the Revolution are doing fine, and the Celtics are back in business after so many years. And yesterday was a great example. It started with the Pat’s with who else but future U.S. president Tom Brady, who completely ignored the Redskins existence. And then, at 8:30, the main course, with the Sox fighting hard and winning the World Series.
And a couple of words about the possibility of A-Rod coming to Boston next year in case Mike Lowell goes: I have nothing against A-Rod, but if it ain’t broken, don’t try to fix it. And after Lowell became the World Series MVP last night, and after his great season, the Red Sox organization should make a considrable effort to keep him here.
Just when news circulates that all might not have been kosher with Oprah’s ecstatic endorsement of heiress Jessica Seinfeld’s new kid’s cookbook (the one that’s all about tricking your kids into eating spinach brownies) comes hubby Jerry’s latest corporate plug for Bee Movie at the hands of the nefarious, fast-food gluttonous empire. No, we’re not talking about GE…
Surely Jessica and the $$ Jerry sunk into Oprah’s deceptively delicious campaign would not approve of such a stint, even with the “billions served.” Afterall, arches whose very existence is not reliant on being botoxed, plucked, and tweezed are so not relevant.
Ilana Donna is back (after a very long hiatus) going undercover to find out exactly how two men from the South can be gainfully employed as “dating coaches” (er, um pick-up artists) in the cynical metropolis of New York. Watch and be amazed as our lovely vlogger, Ilana transforms from skeptic to smitten kitten in this video clip, guaranteed to get all gals (and guys) guessing. What really happened next?
What would have happened to me, a non celebrity, if I was to use a racial reference lets say… lets not say… just to any minority? Most likely, if I said it at work, I would get fired. If I said it on TV, someone will sue my ass. Jay Leno reaction to Halle Berry’s Anti-Semitic comment on The Tonight Show was: “I’m glad you said it.”
Why Leno? Why are you so glad? Would you be just as glad if someone made a similar joke about African- Americans? Jay Leno must apologize or he is just as racist as stupid Berry.
P.S. Halle f@#$ing Berry, your tears may be good for all the awards you got for taking off your clothes in movies, but please, please do not use this bullshit on us, it doesn’t work.
Sarah Silverman told Macleans.ca that: “I never consciously decided to be the way I am or do the material I do it’s not a game plan.” But just before we develop any high hopes she ads: “So, I figure if I grow and change and continue to do stuff that makes me giggle, I should be good.”
I simply hate Dancing With The Stars! I know that I don’t reflect the mainstream- TV consuming average Joe, but it’s the truth. And now, not only that the show is getting even more attention after Marie Osmond was Fainting With The Stars on live TV before the eyes of an amazed nation, Uri Geller’s Phenomenon will premier tonight live on NBC. Between these two shows, I believe we would have a 100% of captive audience, if it wasn’t for Manny, Big Papi, Youk, and the rest of the Red Sox gang, who are playing in World Series tonight, and will be ranked the highest in the Boston area ratings. Let’s go Red Sox.
Amy, Amy, what are we going to do with you? After the Norwegian Police arrested one of our blog’s main subjects, she was released just in time to go on stage and do her thing. I also hear that some of her friends seemed pleased of the fact she only got arrested for the possession of weed and not something stronger. If they are so concerned about her they should send her to this place in Utah, to dry her talented but disturbed soul of all the shit that runs there. After watching Regina Spektor performers last week, without all the meshigayes*, but with a lot of magic, I understand that you don’t have to be a nut job to succeed, well maybe just a little…
I’ve been owing readers here a recap of the Regina Spektor concert I attended last Sunday for roughly a week now, so here goes. In my defense, I turned the big 3-0 last week and was slightly preoccupied with birthday shenanigans. So now I’m back and ready to give Regina Spektor, experimental folk-acoustic, seductive songstress du jour (du semaine) a proper ode.
Headlining the Regina show was Only Son, aka iPod Man. His act was decent enough, but he went on for way too long and his shtick involved an iPod, which he used in lieu of a band. It got a little irksome after a while and as he came onstage drunk and saying a little too many “F*cks,” I quickly realized that a) I’m too old to find this MySpace-generated Mick Jagger/Bono wannabe remotely appealing and b) My generation (X) is WAY cooler than the 18-year-olds bopping along to the Yeah, like, that’s so f*cked man. Shit, ya know. Yeah, f*ck. Then again, maybe I’m being way too hard on our nation’s youth and even more frightening, maybe my generation sounded like that 12 years ago.
But then again, why were all these youngsters who I couldn’t envision really “getting” Regina’s brand of music, the overriding demographic present at her show?
Regina came out onstage 1.5 hours after the 7:30 starting time. While one can argue that the wait augments the level of anticipation, being stuck in the auditorium seating in Boston’s Orpheum Theater- whose seating was constructed and hasn’t been renovated since the early 20th Century when my height of 5′3 was the average height of a male, you can imagine the physical comfort level by the time the illustrious Ms. SpeKtor finally came onto stage.
Don’t get me wrong. Regina is a force to be reckoned with and well worth any wait. Coming onto stage, bright curly red hair, bright royal blue babydoll dress, with intermittent sprinklings of softspoken “thank you(s)” between belting out “Mary Anne is a B*tch” (it’s a song) and songs about people f*cking to her music, she carefully positions herself as the naughty nice girl. Others have gone down this road before in more gimmicky fashion, but Regina successfully avoids the common pitfalls of her peers and predecessors, salvaged by her musical range (high-pitched, discordant elongated shrieks a la Laurie Anderson to heavy, bluesy spirituals) and well, her, incredibly diverse RAW talent. (Norah Jones may also sing to the tune of the sweet songstress, but doesn’t manage the same sub-alt following, perhaps limited by range and level of experimentation. ) The difference being Regina owns her music, even when it’s not her music. Take her cover of John Lennon’s “Real Love” or her recent gig covering “Little Boxes” for the show Weeds. You can’t imagine (no pun intended) either song wasn’t written by her for her.
But back to the concert’s finale, Regina gave us our encores (”Samson”/”Fidelity” et al) and didn’t hold out on her audience, instead generously playing to the crowd, amidst delayed starts and iPod men that read more like boys. Oh, yeah. And really young kids yelling, That’s the f*ckin sh*t iPod Man!
I recently heard a cover of Iron & Wine’s “Such Great Heights” on the radio and loved it more than the original. (Ben Folds’ cover is the version usually attributed as the original version of the song, but it’s not.) Nonetheless, it got me thinking that most often, we squirm at the thought of song covers (similar to the reaction to a movie sequel) and for good reason. Have you listened to Kelly Clarkson try and replicate the brilliance of Ray LaMontagne’s “Shelter”? If you haven’t, don’t. You’re better off listening to this guy on YouTube. He does a pretty good rendition. Of course, “Shelter” is a tough song to sing as my husband and I (and our neighbors who’ve listened to us) can both attest to.
But back to my new-found obsession with pop-techno, 80s retro band The Postal Service. They first broke onto the mainstream scene with their cover of Phil Collins’ “Against All Odds” for the Wicker Park soundtrack. That caught my attention a few years back, but listen to “Such Great Heights” below and enjoy them a bit. If you like, give “The District Sleeps Alone Tonight” a try.
PS- Off to see Regina Spektor tonight (finally!) at the Orpheum. To give a synopsis in days to come…
Now that Lindsey Lohan is out of the famous Utah rehab center, David Hasselhoff can check into the vacant space. The Hoff was hospitalized for detox. his representative, Judy Katz told Access Hollywood:”David had a brief relapse and immediately recognized the importance of addressing it with the assistance of his doctors. He is doing fine and will be back home in the morning.” Conclusion: If you are a has been Actor/Singer/ Any kind of celebrity known to the human race, get drunk or stoned, try to drive (works even better with your kids on board,) If it works out, get in jail/ rehab for a few days, and you will get your career back. If you choose not to do that, your only other option is to join the next season of Dancing With The Stars.
Ok, so we’re all a little tired of the cult of the female pop-rock starlet on self-destruct (w/debris oozing out of their minute coke-clogged pores) but kudos go again this week to Amy Winehouse, who, rather than go the route of most of her predecessors and launch her own perfume line, had her road manager launch a line of whiskey as an homage to Winehouse.
The story goes something like this (some licenses taken with the paraphrasing): Amy gets crabby while on the road and is itching for a hit (either in the form of coke or her husband’s face). She calls her road manager into her van and says, “Yos, whaszup. Where’s me blow.” [insert Ali G-style curses and affectations] Whereupon her manager informs her not only is she out of the powder, but every form of alcohol known to man, woman, and superfreak. Amy, not happy, throws her empty bottle of JD at her manager. Fortunately, it hit the part of his head that’s responsible for extorting more money from his boss. He comes up with a brilliant idea: Market more witch brew, er, um in layman’s terms: Shut up the whiny, overly demanding diva.
To celebrate the launch of this new bourbon, Airborne, Amy was on hand to show her support. Namely do her trademark drunk man’s saunter on and off the stage, mutter profanities and aim some more whiskey bottles into the crowd, all in the name of self-promotion, not to mention brilliant marketing strategy, if I do say so myself…
Sometimes you just can’t avoid the dilemma. You’ve come to the point where the road splits and you have to choose, have to make a crucial decision. The path that you will take, will effect your and other people’s life. Well, I am at this point right now and I must decide, should I watch the Patriots game, or should I watch Heroes and Chuck. This is the question!!! Thank God for DVR.
Just when 
What would have happened to me, a non celebrity, if I was to use a racial reference lets say… lets not say… just to any minority? Most likely, if I said it at work, I would get fired. If I said it on TV, someone will sue my ass. Jay Leno reaction to Halle Berry’s Anti-Semitic comment on The Tonight Show was: “I’m glad you said it.”
I simply hate Dancing With The Stars! I know that I don’t reflect the mainstream- TV consuming average Joe, but it’s the truth. And now, not only that the show is getting even more attention after Marie Osmond was Fainting With The Stars on live TV before the eyes of an amazed nation, Uri Geller’s Phenomenon will premier tonight live on NBC. Between these two shows, I believe we would have a 100% of captive audience, if it wasn’t for Manny, Big Papi, Youk, and the rest of the Red Sox gang, who are playing in World Series tonight, and will be ranked the highest in the Boston area ratings.
Amy, Amy, what are we going to do with you? After the Norwegian Police arrested one of our blog’s main subjects, she was released just in time to go on stage and do her thing. I also hear that some of her friends seemed pleased of the fact she only got arrested for the possession of weed and not something stronger. If they are so concerned about her they should send her to this place in Utah, to dry her talented but disturbed soul of all the shit that runs there. After watching Regina Spektor performers last week, without all the meshigayes*, but with a lot of magic, I understand that you don’t have to be a nut job to succeed, well maybe just a little…
Now that Lindsey Lohan is out of the famous Utah rehab center, David 
Sometimes you just can’t avoid the dilemma. You’ve come to the point where the road splits and you have to choose, have to make a crucial decision. The path that you will take, will effect your and other people’s life. Well, I am at this point right now and I must decide, should I watch the Patriots game, or should I watch Heroes and Chuck. This is the question!!! Thank God for DVR.
