British Tabloids: Amy Winehouse Better Than Britney
Ms. Winehouse’s acclaim could not have come at a better time for the sultry, beehived songstress, whose husband Blake Fielder-Civil received on the same day a twenty-seven month prison sentence for his June, 2006 conviction on dual charges of beating a Hoxton pub landlord and attempting to smoke a wicker chair.
While worldwide support for Ms. Winehouse has ebbed and flowed — depending upon her daily batshit-crazy antics — the devotion of her UK media fan base reflects traditional British values of loyalty, perseverance, and clinging tenaciously to lost causes.
Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog
Joss Whedon (the creator of the Buffy The Vampire Slayer Movie and TV Series, as well as Firefly and Serenity) has joined forces with friends of his to create Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. It stars Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion and Felicia Day and is a supervillain musical that’s quite funny. It’s only going to be on the website for this week and will go away after Sunday the 20th. So click the image above and check it out.
For those interested, Neil Patrick Harris is best known as Doogie Howser and currently stars in “How I Met Your Mother” on CBS. Nathan Fillion was in Buffy, Firefly and Serenity ( as well as a bit part on LOST ). Felicia Day was also on Buffy and has a pretty funny web video called “The Guild” that’s based around World of Warcraft.
Sorry for the “ad”, but I thought this was funny and that their work should be appreciated by as large an audience as possible.
iPhone 3G: Will it blend?
Comme Si De Rien N’Etait
Carla Bruni — married to France’s right-wing President, Nicholas Sarkozy — is hurt by negative reviews of her 60s flavored third album.
“All those breathy notes just become annoying: you feel like telling her to have a good cough and give up smoking.”
&
“First lady… of schmaltz,” headlined the Independent newspaper, which said the former supermodel came across as “simpering and weedy”.
The Times dryly noted that it “may be the best album ever made by the wife of a head of state.”
I hope Laura comes out with an album.
Imaginary Madonna Video: “Scroggins To The Oldies”
Ah, the irony
The First Album Cover
In 1939 a 23 year-old Alex Steinwess, a designer for Columbia, wrangled them into creating the first true album cover (rather than generic sleeves):
(hat tip to Triumph of Bullshit)
Branded in the 80s!
A blog about 80s paraphernalia, for example, a post on stickers.
Yahoo! I wish I could quit you!
The DIY Yahoo! Resignation Letter.
Tiger Woods to Miss Rest of 2008 Season
To all the morons on the radio who speculated that Tiger was faking the severity of his knee condition for the sake of self-promotion and marketing: suck it.
NYT: Tiger Woods to Miss Rest of 2008 Season
In other news, it’s a sign of how powerful Tiger has become — as an athlete and a brand — when news of his withdrawal from the remainder of the 2008 tour gets categorized under World rather than Sports in the NYTimes. Think about that.
(via GF)
Usher’s “Yeah!” - A Cappella
Great rendention by Divisi, the female A Cappella group from the University of Oregon.
(thanks Will)
ATTN: Smiths
Re: clusterflockstock (May 2009; Fannin County, Texas). While clusterflockstock promoters attempt to negotiate with Bill Callahan’s people in the hopes of bringing both Callahan and Jandek to the clusterflock Main Stage, is there a chance we might persuade any or all incarnations of The Smiths to perform?
Otherwise, people, I’m afraid we may be stuck with me and Cooper Renner doing “The Ivor Cutler Songbook”.
looking ahead to clusterflockstock
So when we all gather in May 2009 in Fannin County, Texas for clusterflockstock ( –X– days of –X– , –X– , and –X– ), will Jandek perform on the clusterflock –X– Stage?
Privilege
After many years of Privilege [d. Peter Watkins, 1966] only being available in low quality “grey market” video versions, Universal Studios has finally allowed Oliver Groom at Project X Distribution to release the film on DVD in Canada and the USA. Oliver will be releasing the DVD in conjunction with New Yorker Films on 29th July 2008.
Clint Eastwood: Spike Lee Should "Shut His Face"
Eastwood still isn’t into pulling punches:
Clint Eastwood has advised rival film director Spike Lee to “shut his face” after the African-American complained about the racial make-up of Eastwood’s films.
In an interview with the Guardian published today, Eastwood rejected Lee’s complaint that he had failed to include a single African-American soldier in his films Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima, both about the 1945 battle for the Japanese island.
In typically outspoken language, Eastwood justified his choice of actors, saying that those black troops who did take part in the battle as part of a munitions company didn’t raise the flag. The battle is known by the image of US marines raising the American flag on Mount Suribachi.
“The story is Flags of Our Fathers, the famous flag-raising picture, and they didn’t do that. If I go ahead and put an African-American actor in there, people’d go: ‘This guy’s lost his mind.’ I mean, it’s not accurate.” Referring to Lee, he added: “A guy like him should shut his face.”
Amazing that revisionist history would actually be considered a virtue by some over factual historical representation. Just staggering.
(thx Mike)
Ashley Alexandra Dupré’s tattoo
Meanwhile, N.Y.U. called us back. City Room’s query had set the department abuzz, said Nancy Smith-Amer, an administrative assistant. “I have something for you they seem to have all agreed to: ‘I fared well by protection.’”
We finally told Mr. Ensley, at Columbia, whose tattoo he was translating.
“Oh, God,” he said. “I guess on some weird level, if you wanted to translate it into some modern sense of the word, You could say, ‘I used protection.’
Link (via Fimoculous)
Gas? $4/gallon?
George W. Bush hadn’t heard that. Weird.
She Thought She Won a Toyota
When ‘Writer’ Means ‘Typer’
Idea: how about you get a newspaper and type every single word of it into a book, then try to market the book as avant garde neo-poetry? Kenneth Goldsmith did exactly that with Day, an 840-page book that contains every single word of an NYTimes issue.
He typed an entire issue of the New York Times into an 840-page book called Day. He recently completed a trilogy, The Weather, Traffic and Sports. They are transcriptions of a year of radio weather reports, a 24-hour traffic cycle and the radio broadcast of a Yankees game. Ums, uhs and ads included. If you think that sounds unreadable, you’re right. Goldsmith himself says, “I don’t read them. I get bored.”
Odd way to get your 15 minutes, but hey, at least he got them.
‘Uncreative Writer’ Retypes the ‘New York Times’
(via swissmiss)
iPhone 3G: The Siren Song
I have resisted the iPhone for a solid year now, instead sticking with my BlackBerry 8130 on Verizon. But increasingly the BB isn’t doing it for me, and I find myself lusting after iPhones even more than when they launched. I told myself some time ago that I would wait until iPhone v2 arrives, and assuming it has 3G capability, I would take the plunge then.
Tomorrow at WWDC might be the tipping point for me. If the new model amazes — and I think it will, but not NEARLY as much as the 3rd-party software demos will — I will buy one and make the move to AT&T.
I found some purported (’leaked’) images of the 3G iPhone over on Engadget, but I have my doubts as to whether or not these are real. In fact, I agree with John Gruber: before WWDC, all ‘leaked’ info should be assumed false, as leaked Apple images/news are amazingly viral before any headline Apple event.
If you are an iPhone user, what are your impressions of the device (and network) after owning one for some time? Any insight into the whole iPhone vs. BlackBerry debate?
Angela Lansbury’s Sexuality
He-Man and the Masters of the Univers
Chris is debating whether to make this t-shirt. My vote is hell yes.
Caption Contest?
Too Hip for Words
“Any place that is too hip for words is too hip for me,” replied Cooper.
clusterflock by the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre
The custom clusterflock video is here!