Video Of The Week: Amanda Palmer & The Grand Theft Orchestra

Amanda Palmer - the female Jack White for a while (when she was fronting The Dresden Dolls). Now she's more ballad-oriented, more of a Big Band mixed with Tori Amos vibe, but it's still very good.

Controversy has followed her of late, what with the postponement of her 2013 European tour, debate over whether she should try to innovate by offering fans to play as her backing band ''for free'' (internship-like) after having raised over a million dollars to record her latest album... Steve Albini publicly objected...

Her marriage to writer Neil Gaiman continues to feed tabloids, seeing as she still considers herself bisexual and polyamorous (in open relationships)...

And yet she keeps rocking, for our aural pleasure.

Halle Berry Breast Stunt

I'm curious to see what will become of Movie 43, which seems like a bunch of awkward and funny skits jammed together in one funny, 80-minute block of something that could have been made for TV but will instead cost $15 to see in a crowded environment.

Related to that, I'd be curious to see Halle Berry dip her breasts in guacamole - you know, for the art of it.

Nicki Minaj Vs Steven Tyler: Battle Of The Dolls

It now seems that Steven Tyler was fired from American Idol, rather than his desire to get back to Aerosmith. He and Jennifer Lopez were replaced with Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj on the self-deflating show that no longer produces top sellers, and now he's saying what I always thought was true of these shows, namely that if Bob Dylan would have applied to such a show in the 1960s, they would have turned one of the best songwriters of all time down because his voice isn't powerful and radio-friendly.

Except Tyler said it specifically about Minaj, and she responded by calling him ''racist''. And now Twitter is aflame.

Trick's Daddy

I don't know what I find odder in this USA Today story (from a while back) - that NFL football player Bryant McKinnie ran a $375K tab at a strip club, or that said strip club belongs to rapper Trick Daddy's... daddy. Or that it'll likely end up in court.

It used to be in sports that NBA players were the bad boys, sleeping with tons of women in different cities, smoking weed, taking cocaine, some of them catching HIV, others getting sued for rape. But 80-game seasons require something to change one's mind...

But football players took it up a notch, what with their huge salaries for 16 games of work and a growing feeling of entitlement turned into sexcapade boat trips with hookers and strippers (in which McKinnie was involved, come to think of it...), domestic violence, armed robbery, shooting oneself in the leg while carrying a gun in their trousers, and so much more.

And somehow, knowing at least one rapper was raised with money coming from women getting paid to follow orders and remove clothing makes a little more sense. As Jay-Z and DMX said, for some of them, it's ''Money Cash, Hoes''...

R.I.P. Patrice O'Neal

After suffering a stroke in October, stand-up comedian Patrice O'Neal died today, succombing to a long, hard struggle with diabetes.

I last saw him in The Comedy Central Roast Of Charlie Sheen, and he alluded briefly to his disease, but I didn't think it was that serious.

I need to get tested. Soon.

Did you know that in Canada, 25% of diabetics are unaware they even have it?

Someone Please Explain To Me...

Who the fuck is Courtney Stodden? And why does it matter what she wears?

I should have left it alone, I really should have... but here is what I've learned through 5 seconds of Google:

Alright. So she’s a 17 year-old aspiring model/actress/singer. Like so many others.

Except she’s been married to small-time actor Doug Hutchison (small roles in The Green Mile and 24, played ''plane door opener'' in the 2000 remake of Shaft…), who is 51. since she was 16. Uh-huh, yeah: gross.

But the dude has morals: he refused to play in a movie that would cast him as a director who starts banging his underage actress in The Genesis Of Lincoln. Classy move, no?

But at least Courtney looks 37.

Still, a nobody actor and a nobody actress walk down a street, and people are focusing on what they’re wearing? Why? Who gives a fuck? And why does it make it onto the fucking news?

Where is this world headed, and how can we make the extinction of mankind happen any faster?

Do You Like Contests?

(edit: the contest is now closed)

Do you like contests? I sure do.

And if you've ever read my collectibles blog, you'll notice I particularly enjoy entertainment and sports memorabilia.

This blog I've just started following has both, for the time being - a contest in which the prizes are sports collectibles.

And I encourage you to enter, but I would prefer if I were the winner. Tough conundrum, eh?

But contests are fun. Enjoy!

(the picture is from a mailing I received from NHL superstar Ryan Smyth, a.k.a. Captain Canada)

Poor Girl!

Even when she's laying low, doing nothing, someone has to bring her up. I'm not even above it myself (I know it brings my reader count up).

But this... she isn't even out of bed yet, and someone's snagging a picture of Megan Fox!

The History Of Cheerleading

Once in a while, a captivating link makes its rounds on the interwebs and achieves ''legendary'' status: the piano-playing cat on YouTube, the water-skiing squirrel, Amanda Palmer or Rose McGowan on the red carpet at award shows...

This link, from Cracked.com, deserves such recognition.

Sure, it's got the images you expect, such as:




But also improbable ones:






However, this one just may be my ''Pic Of The Day'':





But, more importantly, a relatively long blurb about ''The History Of Cheerleading'', and a ''Facts About Cheerleading'' checklist (ripe with pictures).

Fun times.

I'm left with a new-found respect for the sport...

The History Of Hockey Video Games

With the NHL season looming, journalists are starting to try to predict which team(s) will finish in what position, while teams are figuring out who will remain on their rosters - while their marketing geniuses try to find yet another product (g-strings? really?) to adorn their logo on.

Which means it's also time for hockey video games - namely NHL 10 and NHL 2K10 - the chief rivals.

Here's a blog post for those looking for a historical perspective on the subject.

Myself? I'm getting NHL 10. I've never purchased a game from the 2K series, just the EA classics.

Well, those and Ice Hockey and Blades Of Steel, of course...

Poor Miley Cyrus!

So it's been a long fucking while, eh? I know there are tons of more important stuff to be taking on, but, I need to start somewhere...

So I'm in my boxer shorts and t-shirt, waiting for a friend to tell me if he's coming over or not, and I stumble upon this very funny piece of non-news: Miley Cyrus, daughter of Billy Ray (the achy breaky heartbreaker from almost two decades ago, now going the Jon Bon Jovi washed-up-singer-turns-actor route) and pop star of the moment, was given the cold shoulder by none other than Radiohead at the Grammys.

She couldn't take it, so she left - didn't even stay to watch them perform.

If, really, they were her favourite band in the whole wide world, then she might've tried reading up on them once in a while... we're talking about a band that:

- after making it big with the song Creep in 1993 (the third time it was released as a single, by the way), stopped playing it, a few times even replying ''we're not a fucking jukebox'' when it's requested live

- after releasing one of the best, if not THE best, rock record of all time, OK Computer, in 1997, pretty much stopped making straightforward rock music altogether

- as a matter of fact, their next record, Kid A, could well have been made by an electronica/experimental/psychedelic act

- from Kid A onwards, during their live performances, Jonny Greenwood, the band's best guitarist, possibly among the best rock guitarists in the world for the past decade, pretty much stopped playing guitar on stage, playing with bleeping machines and transistor radios instead...
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So... regardless of what anyone thinks of Miley Cyrus talent-wise, intelligence-wise... she is still a modern day bubblegum pop star, bred for kids, hoping to stay long enough to make a dent in pop the Aguilera/Spears/Simpson way.

I'm not sure Radiohead would give Coldplay the time of day at the Grammys. So, sorry, Miley, but what you represent is of no interest to Radiohead, and even if you weren't you, with everything that implies (family history in music, starting out as an actress rather than a singer, having your own fucking wing in your dad's mansion, etc.), they probably wouldn't have wanted to meet you anyway.

It's not you, it's them. And it's also a little bit you.

Grey's Anatomy Fired Actress After Lesbian Scene

Although many sources, including Huffington Post, cite Grey's Anatomy executive producer Shonda Rhimes as saying this decision has nothing to do with actress Brooke Smith's recently-aired lesbian love-making episode.

Uh huh.

The fact that ABC executives were afraid of losing Christian viewers and/or valuable advertizers had nothing to do with the firing, which was told to the actress at the very last minute - when she got her next script. And the fact that it looks abrupt and forced in the script and is left rather unexplained is likely a coincidence too.

So let me get this straight: you do your job and go ahead with what's in the script, you lose your job. You refuse to go through with it (which never came to Smith's mind, mind you, consumate professional that she is), you're a sexist - and fired too.

''Damned if you don't, damned if you do'', said philosopher Bart Simpson in the song ''Deep Deep Trouble'' in the early '90s.

I guess so.

Nice to see networks still don't have the stomach to defend their employees and the purity of the art they're trying to maintain in a landscape dominated by reality shows. The bigger the corporation that's your boss, the less they've got your back. Good to know.

At least viewers got to see some girl-on-girl action, and film producers and directors saw someone willing to go where the script will take her, for future reference.