At Home in Hespeler

All the fluffy news about those nutty celebrities.

Plus Eight Kate, the soon to be former Mrs. Gosselin, is currently working overtime to try and extend her fifteen minutes in the spotlight. While her estranged husband, the h-less Jon, is spending his fame cycle getting him some, Kate seems to have greater designs. On September 14 she steps out of the house to co-host The View.  Whoopie Goldberg and Kate Gosselin together on the same stage: that would almost be worth watching, if it wasn’t Whoopie Goldberg and Kate Gosselin that is.

Fans in Romania booed Madonna during a concert in Bucharest this week. Madonna introduced her Gypsy, er… Roma, dancers to the crowd and then posited that discrimation against Gyps… um… Roma made her, “sad.”

Aww. The crowd informed Madonna that if they wanted a lecture on how to treat Gyp… ah… Roma, they would go to a lecture. Turns out Romanian for shut up and sing is booo. Personally, I’d rather hear a lecture from Madonna than listen to her sing, but then again I wouldn’t go to a Madonna concert if you poked out my eyes and stuck needles in my ears.

Gerard Butler has been increasing his profile over the last few years. This week he became a-list when he was seen out and about with Jennifer Aniston, his co-star in a new movie they are filming in New Yorks meat packing district.  The pity of it is, he’s no Brad Pitt. If she’s going to go for average  looking guys, hey, I’m average.

Adam Goldstein (1973-2009) – DJ Goldstein, member of the rock band Crazy Town and DJ for such acts as Madonna, Will Smith and Jay-Z, was found dead Friday in his New York City apartment. He was 36 years old.

I come from a time and place where putting a record on a turntable was how you listened to music, not something musical itself, so I don’t get the whole DJ phenomenon.  However, Goldstein was in the news last year for surviving a deadly airplane crash with Blink 182’s Travis Barker. Four people died in that crash.

According to People magazine Goldstein’s publicist released a statement Friday confirming the news of his death. “The circumstances surrounding his death are unclear. Out of respect for his family and loved ones, please respect their privacy at this time,”

Fluffernutter Gerard Butler, Jennifer Aniston, Jon and Kate Plus Eight, Kate Gosselin, Madonna, Whoopie Goldberg

Saturday Fluffernutter – all the fluffy news about those nutty celebrities.

Oh, oh! Jon and Kate’s separation has turned to the ugly side. Kate arrived at their Wernersville, Pa. home Friday when Jon was supposed to be having his quality time with the Plus Eight. Turns out Jon called in a babysitter; turns out Jon has been tutoring the babysitter, or so says a) the tabs b) Kate. Which is odd, because Kate keeps using her couch time on their TV show, “Jon and Kate Plus Eight,” to talk about how the tabloids make all this stuff up. So suddenly she believes them that Jon is boffing  23-year-old Stephanie Santoro, the “babysitter” in question? Well if it’s good enough for her, well I guess it’s good enough for me, Kate is the torrential bitch the tabs have been saying all along.

Led Zeppelin rumour of the week, courtesy of Ramble On:

John Paul Jones new band, Them Crooked Vultures, premiered last weekend at a post-Lollapalooza show at The Metro in Chicago. The Vultures (TCV in the appropriate newsgroups) feature Jones, Foo Fighters singer/guitarist/ Nirvana Drummer Dave Grohl on Drums and Queens of a Stone Age guitarist singer Josh Homme on, well, guitar and vocals. Reviews are suggesting that TCV are the greatest band since, um, Led Zeppelin.

Them Crooked Vultures are said to be releasing an album on October 23rd titled  “Never Deserved the Future.”

Les Paul (1915 – 2009): Three summers ago the family and I were in New York. After dinner, we decided to stroll to the Borders in Chelsea. For the first time in two days, I didn’t have a 5 pound camera slung over my shoulder. We walked in the store and this little old man was wrapping up a book signing. “Hey, that’s Les Paul,” I said.

“Who?” the family asked.

“You know my guitar at home, the Les Paul guitar?”

“Yea.”

“Les Paul,” I said, waving my hand in his direction.

As I said, he was wrapping up, talking to his rep and, well, he looked 100, so I didn’t want to bother him. But there I am without my camera. The family established a new New York rule after that, never go out without a camera.

Last fall I was back in NYC, and passed a club with 20 or so people lined up outside. “Who’s playing?” I asked.

“Les Paul.”

Ninety-three years old, and still playing. That’s what they call a working musician. But it’s not for his playing that Les Paul will ultimately be remembered – even now he’s barely remembered for that.

Les Paul was an innovator. In the Buddy Holly Story, a studio tech asks Buddy (played by Gary Busey), where he learnt to overdub? “Same place as you,” Holly says. “From Les Paul.” The whole idea of using two or more tape heads to layer sound one upon the other. In the early 50’s, Paul had specially made an 8-track tape recorder. By the late 1960’s, the Beatles where busy making Sergeant Pepper on a four track player, half the player Les Paul innovated out of thin air more than ten years earlier. A remarkable improvement in the way recorded music was produced. But really, who will remember him for a technical innovation, no matter how significant.

Les Paul invented the solid body electric guitar.

As Paul McCartney sang, “Who’s that movin’ cross the stage, it looks a lot like the one used by Jimmy Page.”

There can be no mistaking the visualization: Jimmy Page moved across the stage with a Les Paul Guitar. In rock and roll circles, it is the guitar. A stunning visual and audio instrument, the Les Paul is a perfectly balanced hunk of Mahogany that drove rock and roll from the mid-60’s to the present day. Jimmy Page, Slash, Cream era-Eric Clapton, Early Jeff Beck, Comes Alive era Peter Frampton to name just a few. The Les Paul guitar is the face of rock and roll.

Les Paul passed this week at the age of 94. He is being remembered for his music, especially his work with his wife Mary Ford. He is being remembered for his technical innovations that have altered how music is made. It will be, however, his namesake  guitar for which Les Paul will achieve immortality.

More importantly, Les Paul was a true musician, working to the end and  man who lived a full life worth living. May the same be said of all of us.

Fluffernutter Buddy Holly, Buddy Holly Story, Dave Grohl, Eric Clapton, Foo Fighters, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, Jon and Kate Plus Eight, Jon Gosselin, Josh Homme, Kate Gosselin, Led Zeppelin, Les Paul, Mary Ford, Nirvana, Paul McCartney, Peter Frampton, Queens of a Stone Age, Ramble On, Stephanie Santoro, Them Crooked Vultures

Saturday Fluffernutter – all the fluffy news about those nutty celebrities.

There are levels of fame, each rung on the celebrity ladder being more intense than the last. I submit for your perusal, Jon, Kate and eight. The reality show began it’s fifth season under a cloud of tabloid rumours. Is Jon cheating on Kate? Is Kate really short for Cruella? Child authorities are investigating the family? Celebrity has reached a new pinnacle for the family of ten, and the spotlight much brighter. As unfair as it is, and it is unfair, when you invite the camera into your life, you invite all that goes with it. If you don’t like that, end the show and spend your days counting your residuals.

Renowned 60’s producer Phil Spector has been sentenced to 19 years to life for the 2nd degree murder of “b movie actress” Lana Clarkson. I always like to see the media give Clarkson the “b movie actress” designation as it shows their true colors: it is designed to imply she was somehow less of a person. He, after all, helped create some of the greatest music of the baby boomers generation, she was merely a “b movie actress.”  Glad to see the courts didn’t fall for the ploy and 69 year old Spector, a guy who could teach Michael Jackson a thing or two about being a freakshow, will likely die behind bars.

Imagine coming up with a show idea as bad as Pirate Master, then having someone claim you stole it. This is Survivor Mark Burnett’s reality.  A drivelswigger name of  James Papa says Burnett is a freebooter who hornswaggled his show idea.  He is suing for 2,000,000 dubloons, to be paid at a one for one ratio in American dollars.

Avast!

Hard to believe it was 17 years ago that the whole Leno/Letterman war happened, but it was. History may well record that Leno won the day, but in war it’s not winning the battles that counts, it’s the last man standing that wins. Sorry Jay, at the end of the day Letterman wins by default. Hmmm, wonder if there’s a lesson in there for western civilization?

Farrah Fawcett appears to be in her last days as she loses her fight with cancer. Fawcett is reportedly no longer receiving any treatment and has been saying her goodbyes to friends and family.  Doctors are reportedly saying she has no more than a month to live.  This is one of the stories you wish you could find a happy ending for, but that seems increasingly unlikely and all I can do is wish Fawcett peace in her remaining days. 

Fluffernutter b movie actress, Cancer, David Letterman, Farrah Fawcett, Hornswaggle, James Papa, Jay Leno, Jon and Kate Plus Eight, Jon Gosselin, Kate Gosselin, Lana Clarkson, Mark Burnett, Michael Jackson, Phil Spector, Pirate Master, Survivor, Tabloids, Tonight Show