At Home in Hespeler

All the fluffy news about those nutty celebrities

It was Led Zeppelin weekend in Washington as the band, along with David Letterman and Buddy Guy among others, were honoured at the Kennedy Center for the Arts Honors Gala.

In his speech at the White House gala, President Obama cited their wild lifestyle, noting there where 3 inch windows and secret service around the room. “The artwork is expensive guys,” he noted with a laugh.

The next night, the surviving members of what Jack Black called “the best rock band ever,” did something they have never done, gone on an American television show. Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones paid a visit to fellow Kennedy Center honoree David Letterman’s late night talk show. While they didn’t play on the show, they did chat with Dave for almost 12 minutes.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame finally gets one right. After inducting The Beasty Boys, Blondie and Run-D.M.C., the hall has inducted Canadian rock legends Rush.

The members of Rush are said to be very pleased, with singer/bassist/keyboardist/chicken roaster Geddy Lee telling Rolling Stone, “it made my mom happy, so that’s worth it.” Woah with the big head there Geddy.

I’d say the Rock and Roll Hall finally had it’s act together if they wen’t also inducting Donna Summer and Public Enemy while the guys in Kiss and Deep Purple have to pay $22 to get in just like the rest of us.

And while we’re at it, any self respecting Rock Hall would lose the ‘and’ and go with Rock’N’Roll Hall of Fame.

Also inducted in the class of 2013 are Heart, Randy Newman, Albert King, Lou Adler and Quincy Jones.

It’s been a tough week for that Korean guy you had never heard of his time last month, Psy. Not expecting U.S. fame to come upon him in this lifetime, the rapping, dancing phenom was caught out when a ten-year old video of him bashing the U.S. surfaced. Since, other video’s of the rapper at anti-U.S. events have also come to light.

He has apologized and made his excuses and, lets face it calling for the death of American citizens isn’t exactly supporting traditional marriage, so all is forgiven and he met with President Obama this week.

Meanwhile in Ireland, a 46-year old father of 3, Eamonn Kilbride, suffered a heart attack while doing the singers “Gangnam Style” dance moves at his wife’s birthday party.

Speaking as an Irishman in his late-40’s, we shouldn’t be doing any style dance moves, let along aerobic Gangnam Style ones. I suppose, however, the Guinness and whiskey wants what the Guinness and whiskey wants…

Miley Cyrus seems to have left childhood in her rear view mirror. Last Saturday she appeared as a special guest at dubstep DJ Borgore’s Christmas Creampies show in Los Angeles.

Cyrus had a marine haircut (after cutting off her hair a few months ago), wore a somewhat revealing crop top, skin tight pants and thigh high leopard print boots. While Cyrus performed her new song Decisions, a stripper in thong and nipple covers was dancing on a pole beside her.

No word on which hospital daddy Billy Ray was taken too after having a coronary, but we’re reasonably sure he was.

Eh Tu Anne?

Anne Hathaway’s new movie, Les Miserables, was premiered at Manhattan’s Ziegfeld Theatre in New York last weekend. Arriving via limo, Hathaway, dressed in a side slit gothic dress, accidentally revealed her underwear choice for the evening.

Unfortunately for Anne, like Britney, Lindsay and Paris before her, her underwear choice was not to wear any

Actor Frankie Muniz, Malcolm from Malcolm in the Middle amongst other teen roles in the early oh-ohs, suffered a mini-stroke while riding his motorbike last week. He was riding in Phoenix when he went numb, blind and lost his ability to speak (no word on whether he could suddenly play a mean pinball):

I couldn’t say words I thought I was saying them and my fiancee was looking at me like I was speaking a foreign language.

To be sure I’m being clear, let me restate: Frankie Muniz, teen star of ten years ago, 26 years old, had a stroke this week.
The Superbowl! Manly men pounding each other, beer, chicken wings and chili. More beer. Add in some half-time entertainment and you own the 35+ male demographic for a Sunday night. You can almost hear the planners discussing the half-time entertainment: “we’ve done The Who, Springsteen, The Stones. Who’s next? Led Zeppelin? They won’t come. AC/DC? Aerosmith? Bob Seger?

Beyonce? A-ha! Those 50-year old men will love that.

As part of a $50-million deal with Pepsi that will see the Cola maker own Beyonce in a sponsorship sense, Beyonce will headline the Pepsi sponsored half-time show at the years Superbowl in New Orleans.

The NFL better hope it’s a close game or they’ll lose their audience for the second half.

And so it comes to this. A&E was once truly an arts based station with quality programming. Now? It’s being sued by Dave Hestor, “star” of Storage Wars, for $750,000.

Hestor, a former cast member of the “buy a locker and overprice the goods for the camera” show, is complaining in a lawsuit that the show was rigged. According to the lawsuit, the show’s producers would regularly hide “valuable and unusual effects to add effect.” While I’m not sure what a valuable effect is, the bottom line is the producers are salting the lockers. Or, as the lawsuit puts it, “nearly every aspect of the show is faked.”

If you run a TV network, here’s a good rule of thumb. Lie down with the greediest half dozen people you can find, you’ll wind up in court, guaranteed.

Ravi Shankar (1920-2012)

In the 60’s rock fans and musicians raced to sit at the feet of sitar player Ravi Shankar after George Harrison took lessons from Shankar and then used the sitar in the hit song Norwegian Wood. Soon, Brian Jones would have one, and The Animals and The Byrds would be using a sitar in songs.

Shankar performed at Woodstock, collaborated with Jean-Pierre Rampal and John Coltrane and is father to Grammy winning singer-songwriter Norah Jones. His influence on rock and pop music, and in bringing Eastern music to Western ears is immeasurable. Upon his death this week, Indian Prime Minister Monmohan Singh called him a National Treasure.

Shankar died this week in Southern California. He had upper respiratory and heart problems after having heart valve replacement surgery last week. He was 92.

May he Rest in Peace.

Fluffernutter Anne Hathaway, Beyonce, Borgore, Dave Hestor, Frankie Muniz, Gangnam Style, Heart, Les Miserables, Miley Cyrus, Psy, Ravi Shankar, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Rush, Storage Wars

One likes to believe in the freedom of music.

Rush – Spirit of Radio.

“If you want,” I said to my son, “you can put some music of your music on for a while.”

He’s 14, quiet in the monosyllabic way unique to teenage boys and has a lovely smile. He flashed it now, half in a laugh.

“No.”

We were renovating a bathroom/closet and the two of us were putting up the drywall. Born to Run was on, not something he would listen to voluntarily. He’s into rap and modern pop, meaning Beyonce, Usher &tc. Bruce Springsteen is not his thing. Yet he refused my simple request with almost a chuckle.

“Don’t have any rap 8-tracks?” I asked innocently, and his time he did laugh.

“No.”

I bought the 8-track player on eBay about a year ago, and now have a small collection of tapes, also mostly bought on eBay. It was a lark really, buying a piece of obsolete audio equipment that most people couldn’t get rid of fast enough back around 1980. But it was a lark that has come with it’s small pleasures. The fact that, as near as I can tell, a rap album has never been released on 8-track is one of those pleasures.

But there’s more. eBay is full of tapes at any given time and spending half-an-hour nosing through, bidding a dollar here, two there is a bit of fun. More fun is wandering through a used stuff store and stumbling on an otherwise unexpected cache of tapes. Truth is, until you have heard Boston’s first blasting though an 8-track player, as I have after stumbling across it at the Stratford Antique Mall, you just haven’t heard it in all it’s analogue glory.

Pulling out the 8-track and throwing on some classic rock is guaranteed to generate a conversation. Other people my age remember having 8-tracks, haven’t seen them in years, and end up reminiscing about everything from music they haven’t heard since 1978 to the way you had to use a matchbook to lift the tape and keep the audio lined up with the tracks.

A couple of years ago I predicted 8-tracks might make a comeback and while I hate to take credit, even when well deserved, and it hardly qualifies as a real comeback, a noticeable thing has happened. A year ago, one-dollar 8-tracks where common on eBay. Those same 8-tracks now cost $6-8. There’s been a defined spike in the price, which leads one to believe it’s not just me who has discovered 8-tracks.

The good life is in the small pleasures. Discovering a love for 8-tracks after all these years is one of the smallest.

The Freedom of Music, This Week on my I-Pod 8-track, Beyonce, Boston, Bruce Springsteen, eBay, Stratford Antique Mall, Usher

All the fluffy news about those nutty celebrities

Madonna hit the half-time stage at last weekends Super Bowl with a large cabaret style extravaganza. The once edgy singer promised NBC up and down there would be no violations of indecency rules. So what happens? Guest rapper MIA gives the camera the finger.

No big deal really, but Madonna is said to be none too pleased. To her credit (and I don’t give Madonna credit very often), Madonna’s a pro, and when she says she won’t violate the rules, that’s what will happen. Therefore, MIA is in Madonnas dog house for her unprofessionalism.

Or, as Madonna herself put it to an LA radio station

It’s one of those things, it’s such a teenager. in a way, kind of irrelevant kind of thing to do… what was the point?

It’s bad enough to give your child a bad, celebrity styled name like, say, Blue Ivy. It’s another to trademark that name, making sure to cash in on your offsprings grade school beatings. But that’s what Beyonce and Jay-Z are set to do on their weeks old newborn.

The couple are trade marking the child’s name, obstensably to protect the name being used by others. Of course, if the child itself has a career in the future, this won’t affect that, right?… right?

Here’s a question, just how low can worst ever-Bond Daniel Craig and current Bond producers sink the Bond Franchise?

Heineken Beer will produce a commercial featuring Craig as Bond and highlights from the next Bond movie, Skyfall. That’s right, the next Bond movie will premier as a beer commercial.

Maybe a double boycott is needed this fall.

Skyfall, the 23rd Movie in the James Bond franchise, is due for a November release.

After 8 seasons, producers of the hit TV series House, including star Hugh Lawrie, have announced this is the last season.

The show features a brilliant doctor who solves cases Sherlock Holmes style in a New Jersey hospital.

The show will meet it’s maker in April after 177 episodes. Perhaps it has Lupus.

Former Happy Days/Charles in Charge star Scott Baio is known as a former sex-addict. Turns out, he bedded just about anybody you would want to bed, including Brooke Shields, Melissa Gilbert, Denise Richards and Nicolette Sheridan. Now, the actor, 50, is writing a tell all book which will include details of his sexual trysts.

I’m still trying to get this straight: Heather Locklear and Pamela Anderson agree to have sex with you, that makes you a sex addict? Geez, sign us all up for therapy.

Fluffernutter Beyonce, Blue Ivy Carter, Daniel Craig, House, Hugh Lawry, James Bond, Jay Z, Madonna, MIA, Scot Baio

All the fluffy news about those nutty celebrities

Reports that Beyonce and her husband Jay-Z booked a floor at New York’s, Lenox Hill Hospital so Beyonce could have a cesarian delivery last weekend, are greatly exaggerated, says the hospital.

Apparently the singer and her rapper husband booked the entire fourth floor and their security prevented other parents of the hospital seeing their newborn, and sometimes sick, children. The hospital, however, doth protest:

The suggestion that the couple paid $1.3 million to rent an entire an entire maternity floor is sim ply not true. The family is housed in an executive suite at the hospital and is being billed the standard rate for those accommodations.

The family does have it’s own security detail on site. However, the hospital has been and continues to be in control of managing all security at the facility.

Is it just me, or did the hospital just get itself named in any lawsuits from disgruntled parents?

The new addition to the Z family is called Blue Ivy Carter, after the title of two of the stars albums.

Remember when Britney Spears was an underage singer from the bible belt and swore that she would remain a virgin until marriage? Next thing you know, she’s stepping out with Paris Hilton in a short dress and no underwear.

Now it’s 17 year old Justin Bieber’s turn to swear that adulthood won’t change the child. He tells V magazine:

I’m not going to try to conform to what people want me to be or go out there and start partying, have people see me with alcohol… I’m never goings to make myself so the parents and kids don’t respect me…

Look out Paris, looks like you have a new drinking buddy.

News in the rock world that Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi has been diagnosed with lymphoma.

The guitarist was working on a new album with his former band mates – including Ozzy Osbourne – and a reunion tour of the original Black Sabbath was planned for 2012.

The band has moved it’s recording and rehearsing from LA to England, and Iommi has been both writing and recording since his diagnosis. HIs illness has, in fact, given the band “a kick up the rump- it’s great to hear him churning out those riffs again.”

The band plans to honour their summer European dates, but no word on any further concerts at this stage.

Here’s wishing Tony Iommi well.

Review in brief – Girl With The Dragon Tattoo: Silence of the Lambs, but dark and edgy.

The Golden Globes were held last Sunday, and all the stars dressed up, drank up and prepared to listen to Ricky Gervais mock them, which he really didn’t.

Unlike the Oscars, the Golden Globes breaks down the movies into categories, but some prognostication of the Oscars can be made based on the Golden Globes. The Golden Globe winners to watch for at the Oscars are: George Clooney, best actor for The Descendants (beating hsi pal, and other oscar favourite, Brad Pitt in Moneyball; Meryl Streep as best actress in The Iron Lady; The Artist for best movie.

The Golden Globe for most honest reaction goes to Elton John’s husband David Furnish. Of news that Elton lost to Madonna for best song, Furnish turned on his twitter app and wrote:

Madonna. Best song???? F**k off!!!…
Madonna winning Best Original Song truly shows how these awards have nothing to do with merit. Her acceptance speech was embarrassing in it’s narcissism. And her critisism ofGaga shows how desperate she really is. (sic)

He later clarified things telling the New York Post:

I think it was a fluke. When this happens you have to question the integrity of the awards. Did Madonna get the Golden Globe because she attended the awards and agreed to be a presenter?

Can you sing Madonna’s song? Can you hum it? It’s a song nobody has heard from a film few have seen. The award should have gone to Mary J. Blige or Elton.

Nice back-peddling David.

For the record, if I had a vote, I’d pick Madonna’s song. And yes, it pains me deeply to write that.

Fluffernutter Beyonce, Black Sabbath, Blue Ivy Carter, Brad Pitt, Britney Spears, David Furnish, Elton John, George Clooney, Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Golden Globes, Jay Z, Justin Beiber, Madonna, Mary J Blige, Meryl Streep, moneyball, Ozzy Osbourne, Paris Hilton, Ricky Gervais, The Artist, The Descendants, The Iron Lady, Tony Iommi

All the fluffy news about those nutty celebrities

It’s open warfare on the Two and a Half Men set.
Sheen went on a flat out rant against executive producer Chuck Lorre Thursday, causing producers to shut down production of the show, and put it‘s future in doubt. Calling Lorre a “contaminated little maggot,” Sheen proved once again that his recent negative drug tests are tainted:

Clearly I have defeated this earthworm with my words – imagine what I could have done with my fire breathing fists.

His fists breath? Fire??

Review in Brief: Anna Nicole, the Opera: John Paul Jones on bass and a big blowsy blond singing, what could possibly be wrong with that?

(ed’s note: the above opera was not actually seen by the reviewer)

Speaking of Charlie Sheen and floozy blonds, one of Sheen’s hooker friends from his infamous, briefcase full of blow party is back in the news. After the party, and the fame, Kacey Jordan discovered she was pregnant.

The pregnancy is no more, as Jordan told TMZ.com “I don’t have a baby anymore.”

And was Charlie Sheen the father?

“I really don’t know.”

Singing’s a nice gig. Ask Mariah Carey, Usher or Beyonce. On New Years Eve 2009 Carey was jetted to the Caribbean island of St. Barts and paid $1M to sing 4 songs, four – $250,000/song. Nice! Usher and Beyonce both had similar gigs in the year that followed, although actual money amounts have not been disclosed.

Nice gig! Nice people, not so much.

The host of Carey’s million dollar new years eve “shityesapalooza” was the sons of Libyan protest-straffer Mu’amar Gaddafi (or Kaddafi Duck, as I recall it in a famous 80’s era cartoon).

The big billed Bedouin has recently declared war on Libya. This is bad because

a)war is bad and

b) he’s Libyan.

A leader at war with, and murdering his own people is bad company. Now, some music industry types are asking, why were the stars performing for this nutcase and his family. Case in point, Grammy winning band Arcade Fire’s manager David T. Viecelli:

People put a big paycheck on the table, and people don’t consider where the money is coming from, or what they’re at least passively endorsing. I don’t want to specifically say Beyonce or Mariah Carey behaved unethically, because I don’t know all the details. But if it’s true that Mu’amar Gaddafi’s son says, “I’ve got $50 million, come and play for my buddies,” I really think you have to say no to that.

Added former president of Reprise Records Howie Klein:

When I saw Beyonce and Usher and whoever else out there partying with these Libyan criminals… these are people who have stolen tens of millions of dollars from their nation…

Actually what they have in common is they are shooting at their own people, but lets not split hairs.

I can’t speak for Beyonce or Usher, but in fairness to Mariah Carey, she’s really not that smart.

Friday Charlie Sheen Update:

About his bosses at CBS, including Jewish creator and producer of his *ahem* sit-“com” Two and a Half Men:

These people are a bunch of AA Nazis.

As one observer put it, Sheen has an awful expensive lifestyle to afford on residuals.

Catherine Zeta-Jones was awarded the Commander of the Order of the British Empire this week, at a ceremony at Buckingham Palace. The British actress, along with husband Michael Douglas and their children, Dylan and Carys to the ceremony. Zeta-Jones (CBE), was honoured for her charity work and services to the film industry.

Also honoured was American actor Henry (The Fonz) Winkler, who received an Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his work with children’s charities.

Fluffernutter Anna Nicole, Arcade Fire, Beyonce, Catherine Zeta Jones, Charlie Sheen, Chuck Lorre, David T. Viecelli, Henry Winkler, Howie Klein, John Paul Jones, Kacey Jordan, Kaddafi Duck, Mariah Carey, Michael Douglas, Mu’amar Gaddafi, Opera, St. Barts, The Fonz, Two and a Half Men, Usher