At Home in Hespeler

All the fluffy news about those nutty celebrities

“Man it’s cold down here,” Satan said to his minion in charge of the furnaces. “What’s going on?”

“That Fluffernutter guy agrees with something David Crosby said,” said the minion. “We’re beginning to freeze over.”

“Noooo! More Brimstone!! More Brimstone!!!”

And what did David Crosby say

Kanye West can’t write, sing or play. So I have trouble with him as anything but a poser. Produce? That means he sits in a chair while the engineer does the work. He’s a poser!

Kanye meanwhile, headlined Glastonbury where he butchered – as in hog tied, slit the throat of and left to drain blood on the floor in agony – Queens Bohemian Rhapsody.

Earlier, modesty getting the better of him, Kanye declared himself the “greatest living rock star on the planet,” proving quite conclusively he doesn’t have a better side.

Later, Pete Townsend of The Who, closing out Glastonbury, told the audience, “we’re going to send you home now with a rebellious “Oh yea? Who’s the biggest fucking rock star in the world?”

As for The Who, Townsend told the crowd from the stage:

I think I will stop after this year. We’re lucky we’re not in some old people’s home… even this particular gang can grow old, not necessarily gracefully but can grow old ungracefully — or whatever it is we’re doing.

Last month Daltrey scolded a fan at a concert for smoking a joint, so “we’re too old for this,” is hardly surprising. And by “this,” I mean anything whatsoever.

I’ve said before that entertainment reporters are the laziest people on earth. “Oh my, typing out Brad and Angelina is too much effort, lets make it Brangelina,” they will bore entire dinner parties saying. “Why type 15 letters when 10 will do?” Talk about a group that needs to get on a by-the-word pay scale.

The most annoying of these shortcuts, by far, is Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner being called Bennifer. It’s not just lazy, but it’s also not original, being the lame nickname given to Affleck and Jennifer Lopez. Seriously, you can’t even come up with something new and original to save yourself keying in those five whole letters?

So you can imagine how exciting I found the headline this week, “Bennifer no more!” Unfortunately, this wasn’t a directive from entertainment editors, or a promise from the reporters to get on their lazy ass and type out whole names. Rather, it was the unfortunate news that after ten-years of marriage and three children, Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner have split up. In a released statement, the couple said they were divorcing, but will “go forward with love and friendship for one another and a commitment to co-parenting our children…”

Hollywood divorces are rarely surprising, in that it’s the almost default expectation in Hollywood. But Affleck and Garner are two very public figures who have managed to maintain a relationship and marriage largely outside of the public eye. So while the divorce announcement is not surprising, it is sad and a bit disappointing.

Chris Squire (1948-2015)

After a period of unwellness – stomach ailments, weight loss, extreme fatigue – Yes bassist Chris Squire was diagnosed with acute erythroid leukemia in March. Last Saturday, Just a few months later, Squire passed away at 67.

Squire was the only member of Yes to perform on every tour and every album, from it’s founding in 1968 until this year. His bass playing was distinctive and often brilliant. Rather than play the bottom end of chords, giving tone to the bass drum, as so many other bass players do, Squire played counter-melodic lines, more in a baroque style than standard rock. His Rickenbacker basses had a big sound which was a significant contributor to Yes’s signature sound. He will go down as one of the very best bassist in history, and by one of the best, I do mean top three.

He performed on 21 Yes albums, plus two solo works. In August, Yes will perform for the first time ever without Chris Squire at bass. Personally, I loved Yes and Squire was a big reason why. Whenever you listened to Yes, you often came away with the bass line running through your head, something you can’t say about many other bands.

Rest in Peace Chris Squire, a brilliant bassist and by all accounts, a very decent man.

for certified professional guitar repair in Cambridge Ontario: Brian Gardiner Guitar Repair

Fluffernutter Ben Affleck, Chris Squire, David Crosby, Jennifer Garner, Kanye West, Pete Townsend, Roger Daltry

One likes to believe in the freedom of music.

Rush – Spirit of Radio.

“Hope I die before I get old,” Roger Daltrey sang in 1965. Fast forward 50-years and last week at a concert in Long Island, Daltrey threatened to walk off stage if someone smoking a joint up front didn’t put the joint out. One wonders if his specific request used the line “get off the grass!”? Pete Townsend, writer of the above line, followed Daltrey’s threat with a suggestion the offending pot smoker take his medication in suppository form. It’s like Grumpy Old Men 3: the Rock and Roll Tour™.

“How the hell am I supposed to hear myself sing with you people clinking your ice-cubes around in your glass?” Frank Sinatra never yelled at his audience. Sinatra died at 82 and performed until about a year before his death, when heart problems, bladder cancer and dementia forced him to stop performing. The smell of scotch never becoming an issue with Frank, even as he was dying of what was basically old age, Sinatra never seemed quite as old as The Who’s lead singer. Daltrey, now 71, for the last several years has kept his light, curly hair cut short and wears small colored glasses, looking more like your Granny than Tommy.

But the Who came of age when Sinatra was middle aged. They cut their teeth the 60’s in front of the stoned hippies and cemented their reputations in the 70’s in front the of the hippies ever more stoned brothers and sisters. Smoking a joint was as much a part of the experience as the music was.

Here’s another Townsend penned line that Daltrey sang:

long live rock, be it dead or alive.

When rock has been reduced to a nostalgic hippy paying $100 to have Roger Daltrey’s granny yell at him to get off the grass, then it has lived long – long past it’s dead date.

for certified professional guitar repair in Cambridge Ontario: Brian Gardiner Guitar Repair

get off the grass, Hey you hippies, The Freedom of Music, This Week on my I-Pod Frank SInatra, Long Live Rock, My Generation, Pete Townsend, Roger Daltrey

All the fluffy news about those nutty celebrities

Twilight: New Moon, the movie that was given numerous zero and one star reviews, topped last weekends box office with a $258.8M worldwide weekend. It also set a new opening day high when it took $72.2M. This isn’t shocking, when movie prices increase the same number of people bring in more money. However, it can’t be comfortable being a critic in an industry that’s in deep decline, knowing the value a large swath of the population puts on your opinion is zero, or even negative.

Taylor Swift won four awards at last weekends American Music Awards, including Artist of the Year. Swift thanked God, her mother and Kanye West when receiving the award.

West, who’s career has taken a bit of a hit after interrupting Swift’s acceptance speech for femal video of the year at the MTV video awards, again interrupted her speech, asking three giggling girls coming home from Twilight: New Moon if they would like fries with that.

The other big winner at the |AMAs was Michael Jackson, who released no new music but did release his mortal coil to great success.

The controversy of the show was Adam Lambert’s homo-erotic dance routine. Many fans complained about the routine, others complained that the complainers are really homo-phobic. Lambert’s problem is, however, that he’s not Madonna – he came to success on family friendly American Idol, not as a skanky-ho who fished the bottom of the moral barrel. In short, the homo-phobes he offended are his fans.

Review in Brief – Twilight: New Moon: It was better than the first Twilight movie, dad.

The NFL announced this week that his years Superbowl half time show will be headlined by the Who, with Pete Townsend, Roger Daltrey and a bunch of guys not named Keith Moon and John Entwistle (or even Kenny Jones)

Canada lost one of it’s treasures this past week when singer/songwriter Haydain Neale passed away, age 39. Neale, who is, is variously reported to be from Hamilton and Guelph, died of lung cancer last Sunday.

Here is Haidain Neale, and his band Jacksoul, with Sleepless.

Fluffernutter Adam Lambert, AMAs. American Music Awards, Haydain Neale, Jacksoul, John Entwistle, Kanye West, Kenny Jones, Kieth Moon, Michael Jackson, Pete Townsend, Roger Daltry, Sleepless, Superbowl, Taylor Swift, The Who, Twilight: NEw Moon