Dirk Diggler Could Have Stopped 9/11
Via WashPo:
The “Contraband” actor, who was actually scheduled to be on one of the planes that crashed, said:
If I was on that plane with my kids, it wouldn’t have went down like it did. There would have been a lot of blood in that first-class cabin and then me saying, ‘OK, we’re going to land somewhere safely, don’t worry.’
Now you may be thinking, as I did, “This quote must have been taken out of context!” Nope, not really.
Politicians Are Shitheads
Daniel Craig. Photo: Chrisa Hickey (CC)
So sayeth Daniel Craig, laying heavily into former British PM Tony Blair. Via Huffington Post:
James Bond star Daniel Craig has blamed Tony Blair for the rise of the celebrity obsessed “s**thead” politicians who cannot be trusted.
In an interview with Men’s Journal magazine, the actor said the former prime minister had been too keen to ingratiate himself with the rich and famous.
“Tony Blair started it much more than anybody’s ever done. ‘Go and have tea at 10 Downing Street’,” he said.
Blair was famed for inviting actors and musicians to No. 10 in the early years of his administration in an effort to bolster his ‘Cool Britannia’ image.
“The fact that a guy who’d been in a band, owned an electric guitar and has probably had a spliff was prime minister really meant something, after years of John Major and Margaret Thatcher. He might just be one of us,”…
Miley Cyrus Gets Political, Supports #OWS
Does the endorsement of Miley Cyrus spell the end of cool for #OWS? Check it out:
‘Non-Visible’ Art Sells For $10,000
Genius or madness? Surly acting hunk James Franco sold an intangible, undetectable work of conceptual art, created in collaboration with the design duo Praxis, to a Montreal collector for $10,000. Paste reports that the masterpiece is titled “Fresh Air” and is described as thus:
A unique piece, only this one is for sale. The air you are purchasing is like buying an endless tank of oxygen. No matter where you are, you always have the ability to take a breath of the most delicious, clean-smelling air that the earth can produce. Every breath you take gives you endless peace and health. This artwork is something to carry with you if you own it.
Because wherever you are, you can imagine yourself getting the most beautiful taste of air that is from the mountain tops or fields or from the ocean side; it is an endless supply.
Shia LaBeouf Making Marilyn Manson Documentary
Who knew that Shia was a Manson fan? He talks about his friendship with one-time disinfo collaborator Marilyn Manson to (of all people) Regis & Kelly and their plan to make a doc about the making of Manson’s new album:
Japanese Pop Star Outed As Computer-Generated Creation
Has CGI technology become super realistic? Or is it more that actual famous people now resemble virtual creations to the extent that the difference is hardly noticeable? Kotaku reveals:
AKB48 is Japan’s most popular female pop group. With give-or-take 48 members, its latest member is Aimi Eguchi, who has rocketed from obscurity to become the poster girl for a Japanese ice candy, Ice no Mi. Now revealed as a computer composite of other girls in the group, she appears 4 seconds in below.
The Hottest Tech Startup Investor? Ashton Kutcher
Photo: TechCrunch (CC)
New York hosted the number one technology startup conference this week, Techcrunch Disrupt. It felt as though Silicon Valley had taken over Manhattan, but one of the highest profile attendees was actually from Southern California — actor Ashton Kutcher (OK, I know he’s from Iowa originally). He was interviewed on stage by Charlie Rose (see video) and today is profiled by Jenna Wortham for the New York Times:
Ashton Kutcher, a former model, rose to fame in Hollywood by playing a handsome ditz in “Dude, Where’s My Car?” and on “That 70s Show.” But in certain circles, people know that he is no dummy when it comes to technology.
In recent years, Mr. Kutcher has become a smart early investor in some of the most talked-about Internet start-ups, including Foursquare, the mobile social network; Path, a photo-sharing application; and Flipboard, a news-reading app for the iPad.
He has also clearly mastered the utopian lingo of Silicon Valley:…
9/11 Truthers Angry At Charlie Sheen For Not Spreading Their Crackpot Theories
This is exactly what’s wrong with “Truthers” of any kind … just because Charlie Sheen drank the kool aid once, does not mean he has to use every opportunity to expose these theories. Making him do what you think is the very definition of fascism. Via New York Magazine:
You just cannot make everyone happy! The 9/11 Truth Movement’s Mark Dice tells TMZ that Charlie Sheen — who has, in the past, publicly stated his support for the organization — is losing his conspiracy-theorist base because he’s not “asking hard questions about what happened on 9/11 and the resulting wars” at his live show. (Which is something he should be doing instead of “bragging about smoking crack and sleeping with hookers.”) Also, says Dice, the Q&A formatting needs tweaking.
Jerry Seinfeld on Royal Wedding: ‘Let’s Pretend These Are Special People’ (Video)
Here could have said whatever he felt like, so I’m glad he called it like it is:
Snoop Dogg, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga Go Where The Money Is: Silicon Valley
Facebook = Katy Perry; Twitter = Snoop Dogg; Google = Lady Gaga. Who’s got the biggest star? Not much competition as Alexia Tsotsis points out at TechCrunch:
As the battle for Silicon Valley engineering talent intensifies, it seems as if hot tech companies like Apple, Facebook, Google and Twitter have launched some sort of ridiculous competition as to who could can score the biggest Hollywood talent for an onsite appearance, in order to wow current and future employees.
Between Ashton Kutcher and Chamillionaire at Y Combinator Demo days…
The Fitness Revolution And America’s Class Struggle
Mickey Z
Some 35 years ago—during the pre-Stairmaster days of yore when your standard gym looked more like a cave than Studio 54—Arnold may have already been Mr. Olympia several times over but there probably weren’t more than a couple of dozen people who could pronounce “Schwarzenegger” on the first try.
Let’s face it, when Bobby Fischer was the nation’s athletic ideal, it was clearly time for a fitness revolution.
Fast-forward to the twenty-first century and a health club on every corner. This time around the revolution was televised and joining a gym has become a post-modern rite of passage. You plunk down the plastic and get introduced to a “personal trainer.”
Welcome to my world…
An upscale health club is one place where the different classes meet and mingle. Any personal trainer worth his or her supplements craves an elite clientele. Conversely, their well-heeled customers dream of wielding their buff buns and ripped deltoids…
America’s Next President: Donald Trump?
The Donald says he’s ready, willing and able to spend $600 Million to finance his presidential election campaign. Assuming he really does have that kind of money, is America ready for President Trump?
February 4: The Death Day Of Karen Carpenter
Joseph Allen writes about Karen’s hunger for affection at RockStarMartyr.net:
From Todd Haynes' "Superstar" (1987)
I’ve been listening to The Carpenters for three days straight. Does that make me a pansy? Of course not. These are sentimental love songs from a woman to a man—well, from Karen to me—and that’s miles from the pink-zone. Karen’s motherly voice pours suburban melancholy into my open wounds. I dare any road-hardened man to sit by himself—with a fifth of whiskey and a loaded gun—and listen to “Solitaire” as many times as I have. You’ll never make it out alive.
Karen Carpenter’s biography is as heart-wrenching as her wistful tenor. Her musical virtuosity was matched only by her willingness to be a victim to her controlling family, her conniving husband, and ultimately, to her own maniacal vanity, for which she starved herself to death. Randy Schmidt’s new book, Little Girl Blue: The Life of Karen Carpenter, weaves first-hand accounts…
February 3: The Death Day Of Buddy Holly
Joseph Allen writes about “the Buddy Holly Curse” on RockStarMartyr.net:
Anything cool you ever did, Buddy Holly did first. Those trend-lemming black specs? Buddy wore those when glasses were for nerds. Your hip, four-piece rock band? Buddy set that standard, son. Radical race-mixing? Buddy played with black musicians and married a Latina before such associations yielded multiculti cred—back when it got you bludgeoned by mongrels. Those teenage girls shaking hips by the jukebox? Buddy got the first slice of Miss American Pie, and by all accounts, she was home-grown cherry. And your tragic demise in the passenger seat of a hexed death-machine? Buddy beat you to it, dude. He’ll be worshipped forever, and you’ll be another statistic.
Like a sacrificial life-force, rock n’ roll was in Buddy Holly’s blood. His voice won over crowds from kindergarten on. As a teen in 1955, Buddy marveled at Elvis’ rockabilly performances, eventually opening for the King later…
Celebrities And Science Don’t Mix
The UK group Sense About Science has released it’s annual report ridiculing celebrities’ views on science. Some samples:
Naomi Campbell. Photo by Jesse Gross (CC)
This year, we have seen the biggest rise in dubious theories about how the body works, such as singer and actress Olivia Newton-John, saying that she takes digestive enzymes and plant tonics to boost her immune system. Other unusual ideas about boosting our bodily functions have prompted strange diets, from Naomi Campbell’s maple syrup, lemon and pepper regime to Girls Aloud’s Sarah Harding sprinkling charcoal over her meals.
In sport and fitness, cage fighter Alex Reid shared his tips for preparing for a fight (he ‘reabsorbs’ his sperm). David Beckham and Kate Middleton have been spotted wearing a hologram-embedded silicone bracelet which claims to improve energy and fitness. And Cheryl Cole reputedly extolled a weight loss regime based on her blood group.
In health and disease, celebrity views about the…
Ricky Gervais Explains Why He Is An Atheist
Photo: Caroline Bonarde Ucci (CC)
Perfectly timed for Christmas and all those other winter solstice religious celebrations, British comedian Ricky Gervais tells us why religion is rubbish, in the Wall Street Journal (you might also want to review his responses to readers’ questions):
Why don’t you believe in God? I get that question all the time. I always try to give a sensitive, reasoned answer. This is usually awkward, time consuming and pointless. People who believe in God don’t need proof of his existence, and they certainly don’t want evidence to the contrary.
They are happy with their belief. They even say things like “it’s true to me” and “it’s faith.” I still give my logical answer because I feel that not being honest would be patronizing and impolite. It is ironic therefore that “I don’t believe in God because there is absolutely no scientific evidence for his existence and from what I’ve heard…
Let Them Ingest Saccharine…
Reality telling-vision ‘talent’ shows, aside from being another hastily buffed facet of the bread and circus, alpha-wave inducing media trivio-sphere, also, I believe, serve to substantiate and maintain an ugly and inevitably destructive cultural and social paradigm.
The Celebritocrats lean over us from their polished pedestals, purporting to be our salvation, overseeing the next chosen one’s ascent into their domain, casting aside all those deemed unworthy to be stood before their vapid (pay no heed to the man behond the mirror) visage. How easily the discomforting pornography of schadenfreude that parades in the initial stages of these shows, seems forgotten; contestants disposed of, ‘deleted’, mercilessly and without recourse, culturally guillotined whilst the baying hoardes jeer and mock.
The first myth that these events promulgate is that of audience (electorate) participation in outcome, that is bolstered by the temporary feeling of belonging that comes from a large (in this case discomfortingly vicarious) social…
Who’s Afraid of a Beautiful Woman?
Via the First Church of Mutterhals:
There’s some exhibit at a museum in Pittsburgh featuring never before seen photos of Marilyn Monroe. Now, I’m not some retrograde star fucker who pines for the golden age of Hollywood when all the men were either latent homosexuals or confirmed rapists and all the women were hopped up on pills. But seeing Monroe’s ethereally beautiful mug plastered all over this city quickly became one of a few bright spots on my otherwise dreary morning commute.
To my horror, this morning I saw that someone defaced one of the billboards touting the exhibit. Under the copy, in awkward, sloppy lettering, stood the hastily spray painted profundity ‘women are not objects’ followed by some bastard amalgam of an anarchy sign and the symbol for female. I guess the self defense class let out early last night and someone was feeling frisky.
I’d like to address the trog that…
Former Jet Blue Flight Attendant Steven Slater Becomes Rapper
Jet Blue flight attendant, Steven Slater, received time in the spotlight aboard a flight for quitting his job and exiting on an inflatable slide. However, his fifteen minutes of fame didn’t seem to be enough. In a country where fifteen minutes can be stretched into 3 seasons worth of fame, he has now decided to become a rapper. Line 2, a cell phone app that provides in-flight texting ability on airplanes that have Wi-Fi, has formed a contract with Slater. Steven Slater’s rap single, “I’m A Rapper Bitches”:
