X & Y

Sammy Sosa before and after

2009-11-12T10:22:00.001-08:00

Well, you can certainly see the difference in Sammy Sosa before and after. To teh left there you can see Sammy Sosa before: darkskinned. To the right there you can see Sammy Sosa after: lightskinned.

No, it doesn't seem to be a case of Vitiligo, like Michael Jackson had. That simply doesn't happen so evenly.

Sammy Sosa's description of the before and after is simply that he's been using a cream to soften his skin and that this has led, as a side effect, to its lightening.

For we can certainly see from those two photos with his wife to use as a contrast, that there has indeed been a change in Sammy Sosa's skin colour before and after.

Katie Holmes in the News

2007-06-25T08:46:00.001-07:00

It's amazing what you can find out there on the net. How about a site dedicated to the news about Katie Holmes?

Yes, everyone's favourite Scientology dupe can now be followed as the newsrooms follow her.

There's a section on Katie Holmes and her marriage to Tom Cruise.

There's also news reports and photos, even video of news reports about Katie Holmes.

If you want to follow celebrities then why not click through to see the site?

Lop It OFF!

2007-06-17T07:43:00.000-07:00

There's always a little controversy over whether circumcision should be practiced on male babies or not.

On hte one side there's the faqct that it does, over the long term, protect against certain diseases and cancers, which has to be good.

Uually offered in evidence on hte other side is that it reduces sensitivity and thus sexual pleasure.

Ah, but, the limiting factor in most bouts of sex is in fact the male staying power, so by reducing sensitivity,, and thus extending that power, circumcision can be said to be increasing pleasure.

Well, probably for the man and almost certainly for his partner.

Would You

2007-06-03T09:58:00.001-07:00

Seriously folks, how badly do you want to be in the movies?

Would you go as far as this guy, Perry Caravello, in trying to get a part?

Didn't he realize that he wasnt taking part in the jokes, he was the joke? Anyway, I hope he gets his $10.5 million.

Paris Hilton Petitions

2007-05-16T10:43:00.000-07:00

This is all rather moot but most interesting:

The Internet was abuzz with rival petitions on Tuesday from fans and foes of jail-bound heiress Paris Hilton alternately asking California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to pardon her or make sure she serves her time.

Four days after a Los Angeles judge sentenced Hilton to 45 days in jail for violating her probation by driving on a suspended license, the competing petitions provided a rallying point for a lively debate over whether the celebrity socialite and reality TV star deserves her punishment.

"We think 45 days in jail is a cruel punishment for the caliber of what she did," said Kyle Vincent, an artist who launched the FreeParis.org Web site and is trying to collect one million signatures on a petition seeking clemency by June 5, the date the hotel heiress was ordered to report to jail.

Really, who cares enouh to get up a petition? But anyway, the country jails are so full she'll only serve a few days anyway.

The Best Ringtone Service

2007-04-17T10:25:00.000-07:00

"Ringtones are surely among the Top features that somebody can download from the net. I found a very cool site while searching for free Ringtones. GoldRingtone.com is the best site to download free ringtones without restrictions. The information mail I received from the site says that the database is updated with new Ringtones every week. I decided to test it and download some ringtones (Rihanna’s Unfaithull is cool) and it works just fine.

This site give us the opportunity to download free mp3 ringtones, free real tones, midi ringtones, wav tones etc. Besides you can choose which carrier you like. There are free cingular ringtones, free sprint ringtones etc. So, you can have tones from every carrier. The ideal site for your favourite mobile music is here.

enJoy!!

Phil Spector Murder Trial

2007-03-18T10:45:00.001-07:00

Phil Spector's muder trial is due to start on Mondayin LA:

The murder trial of pioneering rock producer Phil Spector finally begins on Monday, more than four years after a B-movie actress was found shot to death at his castle-like mansion outside Los Angeles.

The trial, delayed repeatedly since Spector was indicted in 2003, will be shown on live television amid fascination with the 1960s musical genius turned recluse who once described himself as having "devils that fight inside me."

Fifty news organizations applied for a seat in the Los Angeles courtroom for the biggest celebrity trial since pop star Michael Jackson's 2005 acquittal on child molestation charges.

I really don't think he's going to get off you know, life without parole is what I expect as the sentence. Rich white guys just don't get the death sentence.

On the other hand, as we know from Michael Jackson's trial, convicting a celebrity of anything is pretty damn tough.

Pity he can't claim it was listening to Coldplay that set him off.

Record Companies and Digital

2007-03-10T09:54:00.001-08:00

The really doesn't sound like a sensible business strategy for the record companies faced with the digital revolution: Do nothing.

Record labels need the digital music market to take off. So why aren't they helping it any?

Physical CD sales have been in decline for the last five years, and according to various estimates are expected to fall another 15%-20% again this year. And while digital revenue is on the rise, it is not yet reversing the trend. Sony BMG global digital business president Thomas Hesse says that if physical revenue drops by 15%, digital revenue must rise by 60% to compensate. This year, he expects net revenue to fall.

So what are labels doing other than licensing their music to digital services that they hope will become successful? According to many service providers and industry analysts, the answer is -- nothing.

"There's no plan, no sense of direction," one digital retailer executive says. "They're just hoping somebody is going to figure all this out for them."

To date, that somebody has been Apple -- its iTunes store commands 70% of all digital music sales and the iPod around 80% of all digital music devices. Yet, record labels are the first to point out that Apple can't reverse their falling fortunes on its own. They need more services selling more music to more people. And although labels have tried to support potential competitors to iTunes, such as Microsoft's Zune bid, these services are merely limping along.

There's only one way this would make sense. Stop signing new artists altogether, slim the company right down and live off the residuals. Otherwise, they've got to find some way of dealing with it.

Brosnan and Streep in Mamma Mia?

2007-03-10T09:51:00.001-08:00

You what? Pierce Brosnan and Meryl Streep in the movie version of Mama Mia?

Former James Bond star Pierce Brosnan is in final negotiations to join Meryl Streep in the movie version of the popular ABBA musical "Mamma Mia!"

The story revolves around a bride-to-be (Amanda Seyfried) and her formerly rebellious mom (Streep) who raised her on a Greek island and never disclosed the identity of her father.

The bride locates three men who might be her father and invites them to her wedding. Brosnan will play the main father figure.

The musical features 22 ABBA songs, including "Dancing Queen," "Take a Chance on Me" and "The Winner Takes It All."

Phyllida Lloyd is directing the Universal project; ABBA members and songwriters Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus will serve as executive producers, as will Tom Hanks.

Brosnan has "Butterfly on a Wheel," which he also produced, and "Married Life" with Rachel McAdams and Chris Cooper, in the can. Seyfried has appeared in "Mean Girls" and "Alpha Dog," and can be seen on HBO's "Big Love."

I officially decalre this a turkey, before they even start shooting.

Ike Turner Gets a Grammy!

2007-02-13T10:28:00.001-08:00

Hey, great, Ike Turner gets a Grammy:

Rock 'n' roll pioneer Ike Turner, whose musical achievements were largely overshadowed by the notoriety he received after his former wife and recording partner Tina Turner said he had abused her, won his first Grammy Award since 1972 on Sunday.

The 75-year-old R&B veteran took home the traditional blues album award for "Risin' with the Blues." He won his only other Grammy -- shared with Tina Turner -- in 1972 for their cover of "Proud Mary."

Also nominated were Tab Benoit with Louisiana's Leroux, Dion, James Hunter and Duke Robillard.

"I'm scared to death," Turner said in accepting the award, accompanied by his son, Ike Jr.

Turner helped pioneer rock 'n' roll in 1951 when his band the Rhythm Kings recorded the song "Rocket 88," a tune widely regarded as the first record in the nascent genre. (The Chess Records release was credited to the band's saxophone player Jackie Brenston "and his Delta Cats.")

As a guitarist and pianist, Turner played with the likes of B.B. King, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon in the 1950s. He married Annie Mae Bullock in 1958, she changed her name to Tina, and they enjoyed such hits as "River Deep, Mountain High," "Proud Mary" and "Nutbush City Limits."

Yes, I know that he was a shit at times but go listen to some of the music again: that part was superb.

Technorati tags: Ike Turner, Tina Turner

Lane Garrison: Manslaughter?

2007-02-02T09:55:00.001-08:00

Looks like Lane Garrison, star of Prison Break, could get charged with manslaughter:

US police have said that Prison Break star Lane Garrison should be charged with manslaughter and drunk driving.
The actor, who plays Tweener in the US drama, was the driver in an accident that left a teenage passenger dead and injured two others.
The Associated Press reports that police investigators have asked Los Angeles County prosecutors to charge the star, who they say was nearly twice over the legal limit.

I'd expect that whether he is charged or not that his career in TV is over: that sort of idiocy, driving while drunk, is only allowed for those truly famous.

Technorati tags: lane garrison

Russell Crowe as the Sherriff of Nottingham?

2007-02-01T11:52:00.001-08:00

Now here's a little bit of revisionist history going on:

Universal Pictures has scored a bull's-eye, winning a heated bidding war for a revisionist take on the legend of Robin Hood with Russell Crowe attached to play the Sheriff of Nottingham.

The script revolves around Crowe's character's investigation of a series of murders in which Robin Hood is the suspect.

The project hails from Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris, creators of the series "Sleeper Cell." Imagine Entertainment is producing

Part of the strength of the script was the simple idea of doing Robin Hood by making the sheriff the good guy," Reiff said.

The bidding war came down to Universal Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line Cinema, though Regency Enterprises, DreamWorks Pictures and Columbia Pictures were said to be involved as well. About 36 hours after the script had gone out, Universal won. And the writers -- whose "Sleeper Cell" Showtime had canceled on January 25 -- became part of one the biggest deals in some time.

Me, I'd put this down to the American idea that the lawman is always the good guy. It's us, the Brits, through bitter historical experience, who remember that that is not always so.

Technorati tags: russell crowe, robin hood, sheriff of nottingham

Why won't This Work?

2006-12-10T09:58:00.001-08:00

Why is it that this posting tool will never print the titles? Grr.

This is actually getting very irritating.

And yes, I still hate that damned Coldplay album.

X & Y

2005-06-12T02:20:00.000-07:00

Coldplay has a new album out, X & Y.

Coldplay are the biggest selling band from the UK, more is the pity.

The singer, pianist and frontman is Chris Martin, married to Gwyneth Paltrow and father of the absurdly named Apple. What a name to give a child, eh?

The band has a new album out, X&Y, which is a reasonably pathetic title. What, you mean that they are the first people in all history to think that both male and female have a part to play in life? Have they never heard of Yin and Yang? How on earth do they think they got here themselves if there was not some form of co-operation between the two sexes?

Obviously macrobiotic diets cause a loss of intelligence.

The official Coldplay site is here, a fan site is here.

There is also a subset of the MTV site dedicated to Coldplay and something from Rolling Stone here.

Quite the best description of the band is here, at the Telegraph.

As a measure of the menace that Coldplay represents to the listening public consider a poignant letter published in The Daily Telegraph last week: "They ruined what my wife and I had hoped would be a convivial evening at a riverside pub," fumed Graham Vine, of Close Borden, Hampshire. "On arriving we wondered why so many customers were sitting outside on such a chilly, breezy evening. It didn't take long to find out why. Whoever had charge of the pub's sound system inflicted upon us one dismal dirge after another from the Coldplay album, one of the most depressing I have heard."

And this rather damning comment:

British rock hasn't found a new angle in years. Thriving at one end of the business are the dinosaur -rockers of the 1960s and '70s, while flourishing at the other are the made-for-television, boy-and-girl groups. Coldplay have quietly bagged the middle ground. They may be unoriginal, but at least they are an unoriginal version of Radiohead. Imagine, or, rather try not to, the unoriginal version of Busted.

The Telegraph continues:

Those Coldplay boys will look anywhere for inspiration, including the back end of the dictionary. Their new album is catchily called X&Y: X for excruciating, Y for why bother.

No, not a good review that.